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S 

University  of  California  •  Berkley 


University  of  California  Bancroft  Library/Berkeley 

Regional  Oral  History  Office 


Max  Schmidt  Jr. 
Herman  Diedrichs 
Bernhard  Schmidt 

THE  SCHMIDT  LITHOGRAPH  COMPANY 
VOLUME  I 


Interviews  Conducted  by 
Ruth  Teiser 

Berkeley 
1968 


Max   Scheldt 


All  literary  rights  in  the  manuscript,  including 
the  right  to  publish,  are  reserved  to  The  Bancroft 
Library  of  the  University  of  California  at  Berkeley. 
No  part  of  the  manuscript  may  be  quoted  for  publication 
without  the  written  permission  of  the  Director  of  The 
Bancroft  Library  of  the  University  of  California  at 
Berkeley . 

Requests  for  permission  to  quote  for  publication 
should  be  addressed  to  the  Regional  Oral  History  Office, 
486  Library,  and  should  include  identification  of  the 
specific  passages  to  be  quoted,  anticipated  use  of  the 
passages,  and  identification  of  the  user. 


INTRODUCTION 
• 
For  well  over  a  half  century,  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 

Company  of  San  Francisco  was  one  of  the  great  "label  houses" 
of  the  United  States.   It  was  established  by  the  German  im 
migrant,  Max  Schmidt,  who  gave  the  date  of  Its  founding  as 
1873,  when  he  apparently  had  a  partner,  Frederick  Buehler, 
briefly.   The  Log  of  a  Cabin  Boy,  a  pamphlet  based  upon 
Max  Schmidt's  recollections  and  published  by  the  company  1n 
1922,  gives  much  accurate  information  on  the  history  of  the 
enterprise,  in  spite  of  its  joking  style.   A  1925  pamphlet, 
Dedication  Ceremonies,  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  Plant 
Number  Two,  contains  an  excellent  description  of  the  organ 
ization  as  it  was  in  that  year. 

Shortly  after  the  company  was  established,  Max  Schmidt 
was  joined  in  it  by  his  brother,  Richard  Schmidt.   For  many 
years  they  and  the  younger  members  of  the  family  held  the 
major  positions  of  leadership  in  the  firm.   Not  until  1964 
was  a  president  drawn  from  outside  the  family.   In  1966  the 
Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  was  merged  with  Stecher-Traung 
Lithograph  Company  of  San  Francisco  and  Rochester,  New  York, 
to  become  the  Stecher-Traung-Schmidt  Corporation. 

Six  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  men  have  given  inter 
views.   In  this  first  of  two  volumes  are  the  recollections  of 
three  men  of  the  generation  following  Max  and  Richard  Schmidt 

In  later  years  he  often  gave  the  date  as  1872. 


11 

They  are  Max  Schmidt  Jr.,  nephew  of  Max  Schmidt;  Bernhard  H. 
Schmidt,  son  of  Richard  Schmidt;  and  Herman  Dledrlchs,  an 
employee  for  fifty  years.   In  the  second  volume  are  the 
recollections  of  three  men  of  the  generation  succeeding  them: 
Ernest  Wuthmann,  Jr.,  a  grandson  of  Max  Schmidt;  Lorenz 
Schmidt,  a  grandson  of  Richard  Schmidt;  and  Stewart  Morris, 
a  company  executive  married  to  the  daughter  of  Max  Schmidt  Jr. 
Their  interviews  concern  in  large  part  the  company's  recent 
years . 

Much  related  material  has  been  deposited  in  the  Bancroft 
Library  by  members  of  the  Schmidt  family.   It  includes 
forty-nine  albums  of  samples  of  the  company's  work,  clippings, 
and  correspondence  since  1906;  a  file  of  letters  written  to 
Max  Schmidt  following  publication  of  The  Log  of  a  Cabin  Boy, 
and  a  collection  of  photographs. 

Nearly  ninety  of  the  photographs  are  views  of  the  com 
pany's  plant  and  offices,  in  two  original  albums.   One  Is 
dated  1903  (when  during  a  brief  merger  the  firm  was  operating 
under  the  name  Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company),  the 
other  1909,  following  rebuilding  of  the  plant  destroyed  in 
April,  1906.   They  form  a  remarkable  record  of  a  large  litho 
graphing  and  printing  establishment  at  a  transitional  stage 
of  the  industry:   as  lithographic  stones  were  giving  way  to 
metal  plates,  as  multi-color  presses  were  beginning  to  come 
into  use,  but  before  direct  lithography  had  given  way  to 
offset  and  before  hand  transfer  had  given  way  to  photographic 
processes . 


111 

Adding  immeasurably  to  the  value  and  Interest  of  the 
photographs  are  the  identifications,  explanations,  and  com 
ments  on  them  by  the  three  men  whose  interviews  are  contained 
in  this  volume.   Together  they  form  a  valuable  and  unique 
record.   The  index  to  this  volume  is  by  extension  a  partial 
Index  to  the  photographs. 


Ruth  Teiser 
Interviewer 


1  September  1968 
Regional  Oral  History  Office 
Room  486  The  Bancroft  Library 
University  of  California 
Berkeley,  California 


Books  and  Printing  in  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Area 
Interviews  Completed  by  September,  1968 

Brother  Antoninus   Brother  Antoninus:   Poet,  Printer,  and 

Re ligious 

Edwin  Grabhorn   Recollections  of  the  Grabhorn  Press 

Jane  Grabhorn  The  Colt  Press 

Robert  Grabhorn   Fine  Printing  and  the  Grabhorn  Press 

Warren  R.  Howell   Two  San  Francisco  Bookmen 

Haywood  Hunt  Recollections  of  San  Francisco  Printers 

Lawton  Kennedy  A  Life  in  Printing 

Oscar  Lewis   Literary  San  Francisco 

Bernhard  Schmidt,  Herman  Diedrlchs,  Max  Schmidt,  Jr.   The 
Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  Vol.  I 

Albert  Sperisen  San  Francisco  Printers,  1925-65 


1v 


CONTENTS 

MAX  SCHMIDT  JR. 

Recollections  of  Early  Years  2 

Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company,  1903 

Photograph  Album  10 

HERMAN  DIEDRICHS 

Early  Career  at  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  21 

1906  to  1908  28 

Company  People  and  Operations  36 

Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company,  1903 

Photograph  Album  56 

Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  1909  Photograph 

Album  86 

BERNHARD  H.  SCHMIDT 

The  Family  and  the  Company  141 

Lithography  and  Letterpress  Techniques         150 

The  Company  and  Its  People  158 

Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company,  1903 

Photograph  Album  165 

Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  1909  Photograph 

Album  174 

Miscellaneous  Photographs  200 


Max  Schmidt  Jr.  was  born  in  Germany  in  1882  and  was 
brought  to  this  country  in  1898  by  his  uncle,  Max  Schmidt, 
to  live  in  his  household.   His  name  was  originally  Max  Henry 
Schmidt,  but  he  was  generally  known  as  Max  Schmidt  Jr.  or 
"German  Max."  The  latter  distinguished  him  from  his  cousin 
Max  A.  Schmidt  who  was  known  as  "Electrical  Max"  because  he 
was  for  some  years  in  charge  of  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company's  electrical  and  mechanical  maintenance. 

Like  many  members  of  the  family,  Max  Schmidt  Jr. 
spent  almost  his  entire  working  life  at  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company,  beginning  before  the  turn  of  the  century.   For  many 
years  he  had  charge  of  what  was  known  as  the  "factory 
office."  He  retired  in  1955. 

The  following  interview  was  given  on  two  occasions. 
The  first  was  in  the  San  Francisco  apartment  of  Mr.  Max 
Schmidt  Jr.  on  April  27,  1967,  the  second  at  the  Atherton  home 
of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Stewart  Norris,  and  Mr.  Norris  on 
May  5,  1967.   Mr.  Schmidt  had  not  been  well;  his  memory  was 
at  times  poor,  at  times  good.   He  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Norris 
read  the  transcript  of  his  interview.   They  made  few  changes 
but  filled  in  an  occasional  phrase  and  added  a  few  names. 
The  interviewer  did  some  editing  for  continuity. 


MAX  SCHMIDT   JR. 

Recollections  of  Early  Years 

Teiser:   When  were  you  born? 

M.S. Jr.  I  was  born  June  9,  1882.  Opposite  Cologne  —  across 
the  river.  Deutz.  It's  now  a  part  of  Cologne. 

I've  been  fortunate  all  my  life.   I  was  presi 
dent  of  the  California  Golf  Club.   I  didn't  have 
a  lot  of  money,  but  I  knew  a  good  many  people.   I 
was  president  of  the  Printing  House  Craftsmen. 
I  said,  "I'm  not  a  printing  house  craftsman.   I'm 
a  lithographer."   But  they  made  me  president  all 
the  same.   I  think  it  was  due  a  good  deal  to 
Haywood  Hunt. 

Teiser:   How  long  were  you  president  of  the  Printing  House 
Craftsmen? 

M.S. Jr.   I  think  two  terms.   Haywood  Hunt  would  remember. 

Teiser:   How  old  were  you  when  you  came  to  San  Francisco? 

M.S. Jr.   Fifteen  or  sixteen.   I  came  in  1898. 

Teiser:   You'd  already  gone  to  school. 

M.S. Jr.  Oh,  yes.  I  went  to  the  Realgymnasium.  I  learned 
French.  Dr.  Uthoff  taught  us.  I  had  six  or  eight 
years  of  Latin.  I  spoke  French. 

My  mother  had  eight  children.   My  father  died 

San  Francisco  chapter,  International  Club  of 
Printing  House  Craftsmen. 

** 

See  also  1967  Haywood  Hunt  interview  this  series, 

Recollections  of  San  Francisco  Printers. 


3 

M.S. Jr.   when  the  youngest  one  was  born.   Six  boys  and  two 

girls.   Brother  Kurt  was  the  only  one  who  made  much 
money.   He  later  came  out  here  with  $10,000  and 
invested  it  in  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company. 

Teiser:   You  were  the  only  one  who  came  to  this  country  as 
a  young  man? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   Shipped  over. 

My  father  had  charge  of  the  railroad  shops  in 
Osnabruck.   I  saw  them  as  a  youngster.   They  were 
big.   I  said  to  Dad,  "What  are  you?"   He  said, 
"I'm  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Charlottenburg. " 
I  didn't  even  graduate  from  the  Real gymnasi urn 
before  I  came  out  here,  because  I  saw  that  Mother 
had  a  lot  of  trouble.   We  had  enough  to  eat,  a 
big  garden,  all  the  fruit  we  wanted  and  so  forth. 
Each  boy  did  all  the  physical  jobs.   My  oldest  brother 
I  disliked  very  much.   My  brother  Kurt,  I  admired 
him. 

Uncle  Schmidt  paid  my  passage  out  here.   It  was 
third  class.   But  I  paid  him  back.   Gradually.   It 
took  years.   On  my  first  trip  back  to  Europe,  I 
think  it  was  in  1906,  I  found  out--my  mother  told 
me  —  that  I  was  shipped  out  here  because  Aunt 
Schmidt--Tante  Schmidt  —  lost  four  children  in  one 

*Max  Schmidt 


4 

* 
M.S. Jr.   week.   I  was  to  take  the  place.    I  never  asked 

to  come,  but  I've  never  regretted  it.   I've  made 
three  or  four  trips  to  Europe  and  every  time  I  come 
back  I  whistle,  "California  Here  I  Come." 

I  always  worked  for  what  I  got.   Some  of  the 
boys  swiped  things,  but  I  never  did.   I  bought 
every  share  of  stock  in  the  company  that  I  got. 
I  made  everything  I  got  except  the  $1500  Uncle 
Schmidt  left  me. 

Teiser:   You  must  have  worked  hard  to  learn  your  trade. 

M.S. Jr.   Yes,  I  had  to  work  hard.   I  was  a  bum  artist. 

[Laughter]   I  learned  transfer  work  at  the  H.  S. 
Crocker  Co.   Uncle  Schmidt  bought  out  H.  S.  Crocker. 
They  had  a  small  department,  lithograph  department. 
Old  man  Pohlmann  [Theodore  Pohlmann?]   --he's  been 
dead  now  for  years  —  he  was  the  manager  of  that 
department.   I  liked  Old  Man  Pohlmann.   He  was  a 
capable  man.   He  was  a  good  lithographer,  but  he 
drank  too  much.   It  wasn't  the  banker  Crocker  who 
owned  the  company.   I  think  Schmidt  saved  it  at 
some  point.   They  [Crocker]  practically  lost  it. 


"Dad  told  me  just  recently  that  his  mother  said  he 
was  to  be  adopted  by  Max  Schmidt."  Barbara  Schmidt 
Norris . 


5 

M.S. Jr.   Gus  Soderwall,  a  Swede—he  was  the  best  platemaker. 

A  darned  good  man.   He  taught  me  the  transfer  work. 

He  was  my  boss  for  several  years.   He  went  with 

Mutual*  He  knew  the  business  from  A  to  Z. 

They  imported  him  from  Europe. 
Teiser:   You  were  a  transfer  man? 
M.S. Jr.   A  transfer  man.   I  ran  the  press  too.   There  was  a 

big  strike  and  they  taught  me  to  run  a  press. 
Teiser:   A  transfer  man  worked  with  plates? 
M.S. Jr.   Making  plates,  yes.   First  with  stone.   Then  the 

offset  presses  came  in  and  the  deep  printing  [deep 

etch  plates]  because  they  ran  so  much  faster. 
Teiser:   So  then  you  went  to  plates? 
M.S. Jr.   Yes.   I  learned  on  stone  first.   The  stone  came 

from  Bavaria,  Germany. 

I  didnt  get  much  money.   I  saved  my  money. 

Mrs. 

Norris:   I  remember  you  told  me  about  where  you  first  went 

to  work,  on  Leidesdorff  Street. 
M.S. Jr.   Oh,  yes,  for  Oscar  Schneider.   He  was  an  artist. 

Every  time  he  wanted  a  stone  or  anything  like  that, 
he'd  say,  "You  go  over  to  Schmidt  Lithograph  and 
ask  them  for  a  stone."   I  says,  "Supposing  they 
don't?"  And  he'd  say,  "Oh,  they  won't  refuse  it." 
[Laughter] 

*Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company 


6 

Teiser:   Did  you  get  them? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes,  I  did. 

Teiser:   You  worked  there  before  you  went  to  Crocker? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.  Schneider  made  his  wife  pick  flowers  and  sell 
them  on  Sundays.   He  stood  at  the  station  in  Mill 
Valley  and  sold  flowers.   He  was  a  clever  artist. 
He  did  work  for  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company. 

When  I  worked  at  H.  S.  Crocker  Company,  they 
had  stone  presses.   I  didn't  have  any  training, 
but  they  were  all  nice  to  me  because  I  was  the 
boss's  nephew. 

Teiser:   H.  S.  Crocker  and  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  merged 
to  create  Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph? 

M.S. Jr.   One  more--Di ckman-Jones  Company.   Dickman  was  an 
artist.   The  Bohemian  Club  was  lucky  to  have  him 
[as  a  member].   Uncle  Schmidt  gave  me  all  the  train 
ing  he  could.   Uncle  Schmidt  himself  was  a  good 
engraver.   Schmidt  took  over  Di ckman-Jones  because 
it  lost  too  much  money.   The  Crocker  Bank  backed 
Schmidt  in  that.   My  brother  Kurt  came  out  here. 
Uncle  Schmidt  needed  money.   Kurt  came  out  here 
with  $10,000  and  bought  $10,000  worth  of  stock  and 
paid  cash  for  it. 

Teiser:   In  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company? 

M.S. Jr.   No,  Mutual.   The  next  year  he  came  back  and  sold  1t. 


7 
M.S.  Jr.  He  worked  for  Schiller  in  Osnabruck.   Uncle 

Schmidt  bought  it  back.   I  went  to  work  in  the 
transfer  department,  then  in  the  factory.   I 
ran  the  [Schmidt  Lithograph  Co.]  factory  office. 
Cousin  Carl  [Schmidt]  was  sales  manager.   Carl 
helped  a  lot.   Cousin  Ben  [Bernhard  H.  Schmidt] 
ran  part  of  the  factory.   He  and  I  are  still 
good  friends.   We  have  lunch  once  a  week,  not 
because  of  Schmidt  but  because  we're  retired 

people. 

* 
Dick  [Richard  Schmidt  Jr.]  was  a  good  man.   I 

enjoyed  him.   He  helped  Schmidt  [Lithograph  Company] 
more  than  anyone.   Mr.  [Max  Sr.]  Schmidt's 
brother-in-law,  Mr.  [Carl]  Rahsskopff  was  a  scien 
tific  instrument  maker.   He  didn't  make  enough 
money  in  his  business,  so  Tante  Schmidt  said  [to 
Max  Schmidt  Sr.],  "He  doesn't  come  home  bringing 
any  money."  Uncle  Schmidt  said,  "I'll  see  that  he 
gets  money."  He  was  a  good  mechanic. 

Teiser:   He  was  given  work  at  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   He  was  a  hard  worker.   He  made  improvements 
in  presses.   He  could  do  anything.   But  then  he 
became  too  old  and  he  couldn't  work  any  more. 
Uncle  Schmidt  didn't  pay  him  much,  but  he  saved  his 
life  though.   He  was  married  to  Tante  Schmidt's 
sister.   She  was  a  good  cook  but  that's  about  all, 
Tante  Schmidt. 

C«n  n f  Mav 


8 

Teiser:   You  lived  in  their  home? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes,  but  I  paid.   I've  still  got  the  receipts  to 
show  that  I  paid  Uncle  Schmidt  everything  back. 

Teiser:   You  paid  board  and  room? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   I'm  proud  that  I  paid. 

Teiser:   Was  it  a  good  home  for  a  young  man? 

M.S. Jr.   A  good  home,  yes.   When  Uncle  Schmidt  died,  I  got 

fifteen  hundred  dollars.   I  asked  somebody,  "What'd 
I  do  for  that?"  He  said,  "Your  grandfather  helped 
Uncle  Schmidt.   He  helped  him  out." 

I  joined  the  Signal  Corps,  Company  B,  in  the 
Spanish-American  War.   Edgar  Lighter  and  Sullivan 
got  me  in.   But  I  never  went  to  war.   But  I'm 
considered  a  veteran.   When  war  was  declared,  the 
doctor  told  me  I  was  not  to  go. 

Teiser:   What  did  you  do  here  in  San  Francisco  as  a  young 
man? 

M.S. Jr.   Well,  I  played  baseball.   I  played  every  Saturday 

morning  at  Golden  Gate  Park  (called  Recreation  Park) 
I  was  a  member  of  a  baseball  team.   And  Sunday 
mornings  I  went  over  to  Oakland,  had  my  lunch--paid 
for  my  own  lunch--and  came  back  on  the  boat.   We 
played  football  at  Eighth  and  Harrison,  and  I 
enjoyed  the  game.   Uncle  Schmidt  helped  us  in  that. 
Cousin  Ben  and  Cousin  Dick  were  good  football 
players.   Ben  played  at  Lick  School.   Cousin  Dick 


9 

M.S. Jr.   played  at  San  Rafael  High  School.   We  played 
football  at  Sixteenth  and  Folsom. 

The  Navy  players  came  and  they  saw  us  and 
invited  us  over  to  play  them  in  Vallejo.   I'll 
never  forget  that.   We  were  really  proud  of  that. 
It  rained  to  beat  the  band,  and  we  didn't  even 
have  shoes.   Uncle  Schmidt  paid  for  the  boat  that 
took  us  there.   It  was  very  nice  of  him.   By  that 
time  he  had  money.   They  took  us  all  there  by 
boat  to  Vallejo,  and  they  beat  the  tar  out  of  us. 
It  was  due  to  the  rain.   Some  captain  said,  "Don't 
worry  about  that.   Our  players  are  worse  than  you 
are."    There  were  2600  spectators. 

Teiser:   Did  Uncle  Schmidt  buy  you  uniforms? 

M.S. Jr.   Oh,  no,  we  paid  for  our  own. 

Teiser:   You  speak  without  any  German  accent.   Did  you  go 
to  school  when  you  came  here? 

M.S. Jr.   Night  school,  to  learn  bookkeeping.  [Laughter] 

Then  I  became  a  lithographer.   I  had  two  years  of 
English  in  school  before  I  came  here.   English  and 
French . 

Teiser:   You  must  have  been  a  good  athlete. 

M.S. Jr.   Husky,  yes.   Then  afterwards  I  became  a  good  boxer. 
I  learned  at  the  Olympic  Club. 

Teiser:   Did  you  have  to  defend  yourself?  Were  the  men 
who  worked  with  you  rough? 


10 

M.S. Jr.   No,  they  were  nice.   They  were  nice  to  me  because  I 
was  the  boss's  nephew  maybe  [laughter].   No,  they 
were  nice.   They  were  unionizing  then,  but  I  never 
had  to  join.   Gus  Soderwall  helped  me.   He  was  a 
real  union  man.   Gus  fixed  it  up,  and  I  was  never 
troubled.   I  was  square  with  them. 

Teiser:   Was  the  lithographers'  union  as  strong  then  as  it 
became  later? 

M.S. Jr.   It  was  stronger  when  I  first  came  here. 

Mutual  Label  &  Litho.  Co. 
1903  Photograph  Album 

Teiser:   Do  you  recognize  the  people  in  this  picture  on 

page  2  [of  the  album  titled  "Mutual  Label  &  Litho. 
Co.,  San  Francisco,  Cal .   Christmas  1903"]? 

M.S. Jr.   Uncle  [Carl]  Rahsskopff,  scientific  instrument 
maker,  is  the  one  with  the  cap  [left].   He  was 
Uncle  Schmidt's  brother-in-law.   Next  to  him  is 
Richard  Schmidt  [Sr.]   He  was  a  graduate  of  the 
University  of  Charlottenburg.   Jones,  of  Dickman- 
Jones;  he  was  backed  by  Slosst  He  used  to  be  an 
engraver  for  Uncle  Schmidt.   Henry  Wehr;  he  was 
raised  here.   Uncle  Schmidt.   That's  the  private 
office  of  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  Second  and 
Bryant.   Rahsskopff  was  a  very  good  man,  but  he 
didn't  know  how  to  handle  money. 

*George  Jones.   Louis  Sloss,  Jr.  had  been  secretary 
of  Dickman-Jones . 


Left  to  right:  Carl  Rahsskopff,  Richard  Schnldt  ST., 
George  Jones,  Henry  Wehr,  Max  Schaldt  -  1903 


11 

Teiser:   What  is  this  office,  on  page  3? 

M.S. Jr.   That's  Gamble  [Gamba?,  at  right].   He  didn't 

didn't  know  anything  about  the  business.   Uncle 
Schmidt  threw  him  out  or  something  like  that. 
This  was  the  main  office.   There's  an  office  boy. 

Teiser:   Is  that  Uncle  Schmidt  in  the  cap? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   That's  Gussie  Fortrida  over  there.   No,  not 
Fortrida,  a  Spanish  name.   Tanforan.   She  was  a 
good  worker,  but  she  could  swear  like  a  trooper. 

Teiser:   Is  this  the  office  too,  on  page  4? 

M.S. Jr.   This  is  the  entrance  of  the  office. 

Teiser:   The  people  on  page  5? 

M.S. Jr.   These  are  two  fellows  that  ran  the  factory  office- 
Oscar  Heath  and  Max  Schmidt. 

Teiser:   Heath's  on  the  left.   Max  Schmidt  is  standing  —  oh, 
that's  you!   Who  is  the  second  man  from  the  left, 
in  the  derby? 

M.S. Jr.   Henry  Zellerbach. 

Teiser:   What  was  he  doing  there? 

M.S. Jr.   Selling  paper.   The  man  in  the  cap  is  Uncle  Rahs- 

skopff.   Uncle  Richard  was  the  boss  here,  and  I  was 
his  assistant  in  the  factory  office.   That's  Uncle 
Richard  at  the  desk.   He  was  a  graduate  of  the 
University  of  Charlottenburg .   His  father  was  a 
doctor.   He  was  sent  over  here  to  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company  to  learn  the  trade.   He  made  good.   I  guess 


12 

M.S. Jr.   it  wasn't  a  job  he  liked.   I  used  to  know  Andy 
Moyles,  an  Irishman.   He  didn't  like  him  [Uncle 
Richard?]  because  he  bragged  too  much.   I  got  well 
acquainted  with  Andy  Moyles.   He  swore  like  a 
trooper.   He  was  foreman  of  the  transfer  department, 
and  I  think  they  paid  him  $135  a  week  or  something 
like  that.   A  big  guy,  but  I  liked  him.   I  really 
enjoyed  him.   This  man  [to  the  left  of  Rahsskopff] 
was  an  Alameda  man.   This  was  Uncle  Richard's 
office. 

Henry  Zellerbach  was  a  nice  guy.   I  liked  him. 
But  the  rest  of  them  didn't  like  him  because  he 
watched  the  nickels.   He  took  us  out  to  lunch- 
Oscar  Heath  [and  myself]. 

Teiser:   Here  is  page  6.   What  office  is  that? 

M.S. Jr.   Lithographic  artists'  department. 

Teiser:   Here's  page  7. 

M.S. Jr.  I  know  this  fellow.  Bill  Morrow.  He's  a  paper 
hanger.  He  was  one  of  the  Mission  bosses. 

Teiser:   What  were  the  women  doing  there? 

M.S. Jr.  Hanging  paper.  They  hung  it  by  hand.  No—they 
put  it  in  trays  here.  But  they  also  hung  it  by 
hand. 

Teiser:   Here's  page  8. 

M.S. Jr.   They're  the  wood  engravers.   That's  the  head  wood 
engraver  [on  the  left].   He  came  from  the  East. 
These  kids  are  errand  boys. 


13 

Teiser:   Page  9.   What  department  1s  that? 

M.S. Jr.   I  guess  box  makers. 

Teiser:   Page  10. 

M.S. Jr.   Transfer  machines.   D1ck  Heinrich.   His  father 

was  an  engineer.   I'll  say  this  with  due  respect- 
he  was  a  pal  of  Uncle  Richard's,  and  Uncle  Richard 
kept  him  sober.   Dick  Heinrich  [left]  was  a  good 
transfer  man. 

Teiser:   Who  is  the  man  on  the  right? 

M.S. Jr.   I've  forgotten  his  name.   He  came  from  Los  Angeles. 
The  fellows  didn't  like  him  because  he  considered 
himself  so  much  better  than  Dick  Heinrich,  who 
learned  his  trade  at  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company 
and  showed  him  up. 

Teiser:   Here's  page  11.   What's  that? 

M.S. Jr.   This  is  the  transfer  department,  and  these  are 

transfer  machines  here.   You  put  the  squeeze  down 
on  the  plate  and  then  wet  it  once  in  a  while.   That's 
the  only  way  you  could.   Now  it's  all  done  by  photo 
graphy.   George  Caldwell  [right]  was  a  San  Jose  boy, 
very  religious.   He  had  a  good  education.   He  went 
back  east  and  was  a  big  shot  somewhere. 

Teiser:   Page  12. 

M.S. Jr.   That's  the  transfer  department.   Harry  Anderson,  or 
something  like  that  [right].   He  was  a  San  Francisco 
boy.   Good  transferer;  learned  his  trade  at  Schmidt. 


14 

Teiser:   Here's  page  13. 

M.S. Jr.   This  is  the  transfer  department. 

Teiser:   Page  14. 

M.S. Jr.   George  Caldwell.   That's  not  the  transfer  depart 
ment.   That's  a  printing  press.   I  don't  recognize 
anything  else. 

Teiser:   Page  15. 

M.S. Jr.   Box  department.   Klein. 

Teiser:   The  fellow  with  the  cap  in  the  foreground? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   These  are  old  presses,  cutting  presses.   Ed 
Pierce  [left  foreground  with  moustache];  he  had 
charge  of  the  box  department. 

Teiser:   Here's  16. 

M.S. Jr.   Those  are  aluminum  presses.  We  used  to  call  them 
aluminum  presses.   Made  by  the  Aluminum  Press  Com 
pany.   They  used  aluminum  plates.   Later  on  there 
were  offset  presses. 

Teiser:   Page  17. 

M.S. Jr.   Charlie  and  Louis  Traung,  the  big  shots  [standing 
at  left  in  foreground  looking  at  sheet].   Louis 
was  foreman  [right,  holding  sheet  of  paper]  and 
Charlie  was  his  brother.   They  were  good  pressmen, 
but  I  won't  say  the  other. 

Teiser:   And  they  later  established  Traung  Lithograph? 

M.S. Jr.   Zellerbach*established  that. 

Zellerbach  Paper  Company  according  to  Herman 
Diedrichs.   See  page  42. 


15 

Teiser:   Zellerbach's  money? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   Louis  was  a  good  pressman,  Charlie  was  a  good 
talker.   One  of  the  Traungs,  Louie's  daughter,  when 
he  quit  us,  she  came  over  and  said,  "Max,  Father 
wants  to  know  whether  you  can  work  for  us?"   I 
said,  "You  mean  for  Zellerbach."  She  said,  "It's 
not  Zellerbach."   She  bawled  me  out.   I  said,  "I'm 
going  to  stay  at  Schmidt."   I  enjoyed  her. 

Teiser:   Here's  page  18. 

M.S. Jr.   These  are  printing  presses,  I  think.   Miehle  presses. 
That's  Uncle  Richard  [in  suit  at  right].   He  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  printing  presses,  but 
he  was  an  engineer  by  profession. 

Teiser:   Do  you  recognize  the  man  in  the  derby  with  the 
moustache? 

M.S. Jr.   That's  Henry  Zellerbach.   I  liked  Henry  very  much. 

Teiser:   Page  19. 

M.S. Jr.   Aluminum  presses.   See  these  big  cylinders  and  so 
forth? 

Teiser:   Were  women  press  feeders? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes,  that's  right.   And  they  got  good  money  for 
those  days. 

Teiser:   Page  20. 

M.S. Jr.      Lithographic   pressroom.      There's   Ed   Pierce,    foreman 

of  the  box  department  [in  the  apron,  near  the  center] 
Good  worker. 


16 

Tei  ser:   Here ' s  page  21  . 

M.S. Jr.   These  are  aluminum  presses.   All  local  boys.   The 

girls  are  feeders. 
Teiser:   Page  22. 
M.S. Jr.   Job  department.   Or  was  it  the  embossing  department? 

No,  job  department.   Reprinting  department.   That 

was  Dick  Ellis  [left] . 
Teiser:   Page  23. 
M.S. Jr.   This  fellow  looks  f ami  1 iar--Charl ie  Farrell  [right, 

with  moustache].   Charlie  Farrell  was  a  printing 

pressman.   He  was  a  good  pressman.   He  was  a  nice 

man  too. 

Teiser:   Page  24. 
M.S. Jr.   Charlie  Farrell. 

Teiser:   Oh,  same  fellow,  with  the  moustache  there. 
M.S. Jr.   This  is  the  same  pressroom  —  the  Miehle  pressroom 

You  may  find  some  corrections.   I  was  not  an  expert. 

But  I  was  a  feeder  for  a  while.   They  paid  good 

wages  . 

Teiser:   This  is  page  25. 
M.S. Jr.   Cutting  department. 
Teiser:   Here's  page  26.   What  is  that? 
M.S. Jr.   All  dies.   Die  cutting. 
Teiser:   Did  women  run  die  cutting  machines? 
M.S. Jr.   No,  they  fixed  the  sheets  for  some  cutter. 


Coating  and  drying  oil  can  labels  -  1903 


17 

Teiser:   Here's  page  27.   What  department  was  that? 

M.S. Jr.   Cutting  department. 

Teiser:   Page  28. 

M.S. Jr.   That's  Ed  Pierce  [in  the  overalls,  center].   To  the 

best  of  my  knowledge,  he  had  charge  of  the  die 

cutting,  but  that's  not  die  cutting.   I  can't 

recognize  that. 
Teiser:   This  is  page  29. 
M.S. Jr.   Paul  Nye  [left  end],   Electrotyping .   Nye's  brother 

was  foreman  of  the  machine  shop.   He  swiped  a  lot 

of  things.   He  was  accused  by  Rahsskopff  of  being 

a  crook,  but  he  was  a  hard  worker. 
Teiser:   Here's  page  30. 
M.S. Jr.   Here's  the  machine  shop.  This  fellow  was  a  college 

graduate, but  he  was  fired  out  of  college.   He  came 

from  the  East.   [Man  to  the  right] 
Tei  ser :   Page  31  is.... 
M.S. Jr.   Electrical  department. 
Teiser:   The  power  plant? 
M.S. Jr.   Yes. 

Teiser:   Here's  page  32.   What  department  is  that? 
M.S. Jr.   Must  be  the  cutting  department  or  something  like  that 
Teiser:   Page  33. 
M.S. Jr.   Paper  department.   Paper  hanging  department.   You 

know  they  had  to  take  the  paper  and  fix  it  and  let 


18 

M.S. Jr.   air  in  between,  and  hang  it  up.   Now  It's  all  done 
by  machinery. 

Teiser:      Here's    page    34. 

M.S. Jr.   Seasoning.   I  might  be  wrong  on  this. 

Teiser:   Here's  page  35.   Is  that  part  of  the  seasoning 
department  too? 

M.S. Jr.   Yes.   Hanging  up  paper  and  .  .  . 

Teiser:   Page  36. 

M.S. Jr.   That's  varnishing. 

Teiser:   Where  was  the  building  shown  on  page  1? 

M.S. Jr.   Second  and  Bryant.   The  presses  were  on  the  ground 
floor. 

Teiser:   What  did  you  use  letterpress  for? 

M.S. Jr.   Salmon  labels  for  Alaska  Packers. 

Teiser:   Why  didn't  you  use  lithography? 

M.S. Jr.   Oh,  we  didn't  have  any  presses  big  enough. 

Teiser:   Oh,  you  couldn't  run  them  in  big  sheets? 

M.S. Jr.   No,  you  couldn't.   Later  you  could,  but  you  had  to 
have  separate  blocks  then.   But  we  had  our  own 
electrotype  department.   The  bindery  was  over  on 
this  side  [right],  paper  coating  up  in  the  top 
floor.  And  the  artists'  department  was  on  this 
Inside  of  the  top  floor. 

Teiser:   What  was  on  the  second  floor? 

M.S. Jr.   Transfer  department,  and  the  office,  and  some  other 


19 

M.S. Jr.   departments. 

Teiser:   What  was  in  the  three-story  section  at  the  right? 

M.S. Jr.   Bindery  on  the  third  floor,  on  the  second  floor 

the  box  department,  and  on  the  lower  floor  Ink 

department  and  so  forth. 
Teiser:   Well,  thank  you  for  going  through  that  album.   It's 

very  Interesting. 
M.S. Jr.   It's  interesting  to  me  too. 


20 


Herman  Diedrichs  was  born  in  San  Francisco  1n 
June,  1887,  and  grew  up  in  the  Mission  District  near  the 
Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  building  at  Second  and  Bryant 
Streets.   He  first  went  to  work  there  in  1902,  and  soon 
after,  as  he  recounted  in  his  interview,  became  a  "fly 
boy."  Thereafter  he  progressed  to  press  feeder  to  pressman 
to  pressroom  superintendent,  a  position  he  held  at  the  time 
of  his  retirement  in  1959.   He  was  a  friend  of  Max  Schmidt, 
Jr.  and  other  Schmidt  family  members  of  his  generation. 

This  interview  took  place  in  Mr.  Diedrichs1  home 
in  San  Francisco  June  6,  June  9  and  June  13,  1967.   On 
October  9  of  that  same  year  Mr.  Diedrichs  died.   He  did  not 
read  the  transcript  of  the  interview.   Editing  by  the 
interviewer  was  confined  to  deleting  some  irrelevant 
questions  and  some  conversational  repetitions. 


21 

HERMAN  DIEDRICHS 

Early  Career  at  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company 

Teiser:     When  did  you  start  with  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company? 

Diedrichs:   I  started  in  1902. 

Teiser:     What  was  your  first  position? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  you  can  understand,  1902,  it's  a  good  many 
years  ago.   [Laughter]   Well,  to  give  you  the 
history  of  it:   I  was  born  and  raised  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  the  company.   Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company  was  on  the  corner  of  Second  and  Bryant 
Streets  and  a  little  alley  called  Stanley  Place. 
Right  opposite  to  them,  across  the  street,  was 
the  Lachman  and  Jacobi  winery.   It  had  been 
there  for  a  good  many  years.   I  was  born  and 
raised  right  in  that  neighborhood.   So  I  went  to 
school  at  St.  Brendan's  School,  which  was  part 
of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy,  you  know.   It  was  on 
Fremont  and  Harrison  Streets.   And  they   [the 
Sisters  of  Mercy]  were  the  attendants  at  St. 
Mary's  Hospital,  and  St.  Mary's  Hospital  was 
right  across  the  street  from  my  home.   It  was 
destroyed  in  the  fire.   It  was  dynamited.   Of 
course,  I  was  brought  up  and  raised  there.   I 


22 

Diedrichs:   left  school  when  I  was  about  fourteen,  and  I 
went  to  work  for  the  Emporium  as  a  cash  boy 
about  1900.   I  stayed  there  for  about  a  year  and 
a  half.   And  I  got  a  job  over  at  the  Schmidt 
Lithograph  Company.   It  was  right  across  the 
street  from  where  I  lived. 

Teiser:     Did  you  know  anyone  in  the  company? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes.   There  was  a  Mr.  Pierce  who  used  to  run 
the  box  department.   He  was  a  friend  of  my 
father ' s . 

Teiser:     Yes,  I  think  his  picture  is  in  one  of  the 
albums  . 

Diedrichs:   So  I  got  there,  and  was  there  about  a  month  or 
month  and  a  half  and  I  got  a  case  of  smallpox. 
It  all  developed  that  about  the  time  I  left  the 
Emporium  there  were  a  couple  of  cases  of  smallpox 
there,  and  I  imagine  I  caught  it  from  there.   So 
I  was  out  in  the  pesthouse  for  about  a  month  and 
a  half. 

Teiser:     Where  was  it  then? 

Diedrichs:   Right  in  back  of  the  county  hospital. 

Teiser:     Oh,  the  San  Francisco  General  Hospital? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     On  the  same  site  as  at  present? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   It  was  just  in  back  of  that.   So,  anyhow 


23 

Diedrichs:   when  I  got  over  the  sickness,  I  came  back  to 
the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  and  my  job  1n 
the  box  department  was  taken.   So  I  was  sent 
down  to  work  for  Mr.  Louis  Traung  in  the  press 
room.   I  started  in  there  as  what  they  call  a  fly 
boy.   I  used  to  carry  sheets  to  the  bronzer  and 
help  around  the  presses.   I  was  there  for  a 
short  time  and  some  of  the  boys  that  were  feeding 
presses  quit.   They'd  go  out  and  work  in  other 
shops.   So  right  away  Louis  Traung  put  me  on  a 
press  as  a  feeder.   I  was  feeding  a  press  for 
about  two  or  three  years.  We  had  a  strike  down 
there,  went  out  on  strike  for  more  money. 

Teiser:     The  whole  city  or  just  the  Schmidt  plant? 

Diedrichs:   The  whole  city.   I  was  a  charter  member  of  the 
first  feeders'  union  established  here  in  San 
Francisco. 

Teiser:     What  was  it  affiliated  with? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  a  printers'  union.   You  might  have  heard 
of  Ed  [Edward  D.]  McGinity.   He  was  president  of 
the  feeders'  union  at  that  time.   They  took  the 
lithograph  feeders  into  the  printing  feeders' 
union.   We  went  out  for  more  money.   I  think 
we  were  getting  about  $6  a  week  at  the  time, 
feeding  presses.   So  we  got  a  raise  to  $9  a  week, 


24 

Diedrichs:   and  $12  a  week,  and  $15  a  week.   So  I  was 

feeding  a  $9-a-week  press.   As  I  say,  some  of 
the  boys  quit  for  other  jobs.   We  were  out  on 
strike  for  a  short  time  and  went  back.   We  got 
our  demands,  you  know. 

We  were  under  the  printing  feeders.   It 
finally  developed  that  they  had  enough  members 
from  the  lithograph  establishments  around  town 
to  form  a  lithograph  feeders'  union .   We  finally 
got  a  charter  and  we  pulled  away  from  the  print 
ing  feeders  and  a  lithograph  feeders  union.   I 
was  a  charter  member  of  that.   Then  there  was 
a  pressmen's  union,  local  number  17.   Of  course, 
when  I  got  to  be  a  pressman  I  was  in  the  press 
men's  union.   In  1922  we  had  a  strike  in  the 
lithograph  business,  and  all  pressmen  and  feeders, 
and  everyone  else,  were  out  on  strike.   I  was 
employed  at  that  time  with  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company.   And  we  were  out  for  eight  months. 

Teiser:     Was  the  whole  plant  down  for  eight  months? 

Diedrichs:   No,  they  hired  other  help. 

Teiser:     Oh,  they  did? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  eight  months  we  were  out  on  strike.   At  the 
time  I  was  married  and  had  three  children.   The 
union  paid  you  ten  dollars  a  week.   And  they  [the 


25 

Diedrichs:   company]  didn't  want  you  to  accept  it.   They 
[the  union]  finally  lost  the  strike,  finally 
lost  out.   Two  or  three  years  after  that,  they 
organized  what  they  called  the  Amalgamated 
Li thographers1  Union ,  and  I  was  a  charter  member 
of  that.   That's  still  in  existence. 

Teiser:     To  go  back  to  your  days  as  a  feeder—when  you 

say  you  were  feeding  a  $9-a-week  press,  did  your 
wage  depend  upon  the  size  of  the  press? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     What  size  press  was  a  $9-a-week? 

Diedrichs:   The  $9-a-week  was  28  by  42. 

Teiser:     What  kind  of  a  press  was  it? 

Diedrichs:   A  stone  press. 

Teiser:     What  was  the  biggest  stone  press? 

Diedrichs:   They  used  to  come  48  inches. 

Teiser:     Forty-eight  by  what? 

Diedrichs:   About  26  by  48,  something  like  that. 

Teiser:     A  heavy  stone. 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  that's  right.   Oh,  they  were  large.   It  used 
to  take  two  men  to  lift  them  in  the  press.   But 
anyhow,  I  was  feeding  for  a  few  months,  and  I 
finally  got  elevated  to  the  aluminum  press  at 
that  time.   We  had  stone  presses  and  aluminum 
presses  at  that  time.   Not  until  after  the  fire 


26 

Diedrichs:   did  we  have  the  offset  press. 

Teiser:     Was  the  aluminum  press  a  direct  litho  press? 

Diedrichs:   A  direct  litho  press,  yes.   Where  it  got  the 

name  "aluminum"  was  the  plates  they  used  on  the 
presses  at  that  time  were  of  aluminum  metal. 
They  were  rotary  presses,  and  all  stone  presses 
were  flatbed  presses.   A  flatbed  press  would 
print  a  sheet  and  then  go  out  and  ink  up  the 
form  again  and  come  back  and  print  another  sheet. 
But  the  rotary  presses  kept  going  around.   These 
aluminum  plates  were  made  for  the  rotary  presses. 

Teiser:     Did  you  make  them  in  the  plant? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   They  didn't  make  the  metal,  but  they 

made  the  plates  in  the  plant.   It  was  all  hand 
transfer  at  that  time. 

Teiser:     The  aluminum  plates  were  hand-transferred? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right,  all  hand-transferred.   So  I  was 
feeding  the  aluminum  press  for  about  a  year  or 
so--two  years  —  and  Louis  Traung  came  to  me  one 
day  and  said,  "There's  a  chance  for  you  to  get 
an  apprenticeship  here."  But  he  said,  "I  can't 
pay  you  $15  a  week  to  start  with.   I'll  pay  you 
$11.   It's  a  chance  for  you  to  get  ahead."  So 
I  accepted  the  job.   I  said,  "I'll  take  the 
chance."  So  I  was  apprenticed,  and  I  was  running 


27 

Diedrichs:   the  stone  press  for  about—well,  the  fire  was 

1906,  and  I  was  running  the  stone  press  then. 
Teiser:     How  old  were  you? 
Diedrichs:   In  1906.  .  .  when  I  left  school  I  was  fourteen. 

Oh,  I  was  about  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  old. 
Teiser:     That  was  a  responsible  job  for  a  young  fellow, 

wasn't  it? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   I  was  made  an  apprentice  pressman  by 

Louis  Traung.   He  was  foreman  down  there,  and 

his  brother  worked  there  too. 
Teiser:     What  was  Louis  Traung  like? 
Diedrichs:   A  very  nice  man.   They  were  two  nice  men,  but 

Louis  Traung  was  the  best  of  the  two  brothers. 

They  started  in  down  on  Main  Street,  you  know, 

long  before  I  got  there. 
Teiser:  With  Schmidt  Lithograph? 
Diedrichs:  That's  right. 

I  served  my  time  as  an  apprentice,  and  a  short 

time  after  we  came  to  San  Francisco  from  Oakland-- 

you  know  we  went  over  there  after  the  fire--you 

know  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  moved  to 

Oakland? 


28 
1906  to  1908 

Teiser:     Yes.   Tell  me  your  recollections  of  the  day  of 
the  fire,  and  what  happened  then.   Did  you  still 
live  near? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   My  home  was  destroyed  by  the  fire. 

Teiser:     Where  were  you?   You  were  in  bed  I  suppose,  at 
the  time  of  the  first  quakes. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  I  got  up  as  usual  and  after  all  the 
excitement,  went  over  to  the  shop.   Everything 
was  normal  over  there.   Everybody  was  running 
around  and  all  excited. 

Teiser:     They  weren't  working,  were  they? 

Diedrichs:   No.   There  was  nothing  to  do,  so  we  sent  every 
body  home  that  showed  up  for  work  that  morning. 

Teiser:     Was  Max  Schmidt,  Sr.,  there? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  yes.   Ben  was  there.   The  whole  Schmidt 

family  was  there  that  morning.   But,  as  I  say, 
the  fire  was  getting  so  bad  that  about  four  or 
five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  they  dynamited 
a  lot  of  buildings  down  there. 

Teiser:     The  same  afternoon? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   The  first  day.   My  wife  worked 

1n  the  shop.   She  was  a  hand  feeder  down  there. 
That's  how  I  met  her.   We  were  going  together  at 
the  time  and  she  suggested  that  I  go  with  her 


29 

Diedrichs:   folks  to  where  they  were  going.   They  lived 

across  the  street  from  the  Del  Monte  mill;  you 
might  have  heard  of  that,  down  on  Brannan  Street. 
I  forgot  to  mention  that  I  was  an  orphan,  since 
I  was  about  three  or  four  years  old.   I  lived 
with  my  aunt,  and  she  raised  me. 

So,  at  that  time,  I  went  with  my  wife.   There 
was  a  truck  that  was  moving  some  of  their  be 
longings  out  to  Bayview.'way  out  to  Bayview. 
We  went  out  there  while  the  fire  was  raging, 
thinking  we  could  come  back  to  our  homes  again. 
In  the  meantime,  they  were  dynamited.   So  that 
was  the  end  of  that. 

Teiser:     Both  your  home  and  your  wife's  family's  home? 

Diedrichs:   They  were  burned.   But  the  [Schmidt  Company] 
buildings  were  dynamited  to  save  the  property 
around  there. 

Teiser:     Was  much  taken  out  of  the  Schmidt  plant  at  that 
time? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  didn't  stay  around 
long  enough  to  find  out.   The  company  employed 
some  of  the  help  to  clean  up  some  of  the  debris 
after  the  fire,  to  keep  them  busy,  you  know. 

Teiser:     Did  you  go  to  work  on  the  cleaning  up? 


30 

Diedrichs:   No.   I  only  stayed  out  in  Bayview  with  these 
friends  of  my  wife's  for  about  two  weeks. 
I  had  an  aunt  up  in  Shelton,  Washington.   She 
heard  about  the  disaster,  so  she  sent  for  me  and 
my  sister  to  come  up  there  and  stay  with  her.   So 
I  took  a  trip  up  to  Shelton,  and  I  was  up  there 
for  about  two  or  three  months.   Then  I  wrote  to 
my  boss,  Louis  Traung.   I  heard  that  they  were 
moving  over  to  Oakland.   He  sent  me  a  letter, 
told  me  to  come  back  to  work.   So  I  went  back 
to  work,  in  Oakland,  for  the  company. 

Teiser:     I  have  been  told  something  of  this,  but  I  still 
don't  understand  how  as  specialized  a  company  as 
Schmidt  could  have  started  operation  in  anybody 
else's  plant.   Where  was  the  plant  there  in 
Oakland? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  on  Fifth  and  Adeline.   It  was  a  box  fac 
tory.   The  old  man  [Max  Schmidt]  bought  out  this 
box  factory.*  They  saved  some  of  the  equipment, 
I  mean  they  rebuilt  some  of  the  equipment  from 
the  fire. 

Teiser:     From  the  San  Francisco  plant? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   They  moved  some  of  it  over  there 
and  got  it  running. 

Teiser:     I  see.   That's  how  they  did  it. 

_    _   _  __ .   _  .  _  —  • 

Wempe  Brothers 


31 

Diedrichs:   I  forget  now.   There  were  three  or  four  stone 

presses  and  about  four  aluminum  presses --d1 rect 
presses.   And  they  ran  three  shifts  on  them, 
right  around  the  clock. 

Teiser:     What  kind  of  work  was  there  to  be  done  then? 

Diedrichs:   Mostly  labels.   We  specialized  in  labels  at  that 
time . 

Teiser:     And  the  canning  industry  wasn't  upset  by  the 
earthquake,  I  suppose,  so  much? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  they  did  labels  for  all  over  —  back  east; 

not  only  in  California,  but  all  over  the  country. 
They  have  offices  in  Chicago,  New  York,  and  all 
over  the  country. 

Teiser:     I  didn't  understand  how  they  could  just  move 
into  a  plant  in  Oakland  and  go  on.   Had  they 
rescued  designs,  for  instance?  Had  they  rescued 
plates? 

Diedrichs:   They  had  a  vault  under  the  sidewalk  on  Bryant 
Street  where  they  used  to  keep  what  they  call 
the  original  stones,  the  original  designs.   You 
know  all  this  work  was  hand-transferred  and  rolled 
up  on  a  roller  and  transferred.   Of  course,  you 
understand  what  lithographing  is:   they  print 
from  here  then  print  a  dozen  1 ayout--f ifty 
labels  on  each  sheet  —  from  one  original. 


32 

Teiser:     You  transfer  the  impression  over  and  over  and 
over  again? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   In  other  words,  a  hand  transferer-- 
he  used  to  take  these  originals  and  pull  im 
pressions  of  them,  one  at  a  time.   And  when 
he'd  get  as  many  as  was  necessary  to  make  a 
whole  form,  they  would  be  stuck  up  on  a  sheet, 
then  hand  transfered.   They'd  go  to  a  transfer 
press.   This  would  be  the  plate,  and  this  design, 
all  the  designs  on  here,  would  be  put  over  here 
like  this  and  transfered. 

Teiser:     Placed  on  top  of  it? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  go  on  through  a  machine  and  transfered  onto 
there.   These  all  had  to  be  processed  after  that. 

Teiser:  So  in  the  end  the  one  design  was  etched  many 
times  into  the  plate,  or  the  stone--the  same 
thing  side  by  side  and  up  and  down. 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     The  same  for  plates? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   Only  the  difference  now  is  they 
don't  hand  transfer  them  any  more.   This  is  all 
done  by  photocomposing ,  all  photographs. 

Teiser:     With  a  step-and-repeat  machine? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  that's  right. 

Teiser:     Back  to  1906--they  had  saved  the  original  individual 
stones? 


33 

Diedrichs:   Most  of  them,  yes. 

Teiser:     So  they  were  able  to  take  them  to  Oakland? 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  and  continue  their  work.   Of  course,  the 

new  work  that  came, natural ly,  they  had  to  make 

new  stones.   They  had  an  artist  who  worked  on 

these  stones. 
Teiser:     Was  the  Oakland  plant  very  much  smaller  than 

the  San  Francisco  plant? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes,  yes. 

Teiser:     About  how  many  people  worked  there? 
Diedrichs:   Well  I'd  say.  .  .  at  least  a  couple  of  hundred 

or  so,  more  than  that  —  three  hundred  maybe. 
Teiser:     And  how  many  had  worked  in  San  Francisco? 
Diedrichs:   I  guess  it  was  a  little  more  than  that.   Most 

of  the  people,  after  the  fire,  went  back  east 

or  got  different  jobs  and  went  to  different 

places . 
Teiser:     Was  Louis  Traung  in  charge  of  the  pressroom  in 

Oakland  too? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 
Teiser:     And  you  went  to  being.  .  .  ? 
Diedrichs:   Pressman. 

Teiser:     Were  you  a  journeyman  pressman  by  then? 
Diedrichs:   No,  I  was  still  an  apprentice  pressman.   Then 

the  firm  moved  over  here,  built  the  second  building 


34 

Diedrichs:   over  here.   They  installed  all  the  machinery 
from  Oakland  —  in  1908  that  was. 

Teiser:     They  brought  machinery  back  from  Oakland? 

Diedrichs:   Installed  new  machinery,  and  a  lot  of  equipment 
from  Oakland  they  moved  over.   I  was  running  a 
stone  press  in  Oakland.   But  when  I  got  to  the 
City,  I  was  running  an  aluminum  press,  a  direct 
press  printing  from  aluminum  —  a  rotary  press. 
It  was  about  that  time—in  1906  — that  the  first 
offset  presses  came  out.   In  fact,  they  had  one 
over  in  Oakland. 

Teiser:     Oh,  they  did?  What  size  press  was  that? 

Diedrichs:   That  was  just  a  small  press,  about  — now  what 

was  that  — they  were  running  a  22-inch  sheet  on 
it.   Just  a  small  offset  press. 

Teiser:     What  kind  was  it,  do  you  remember? 

Diedrichs:   Harris. 

Teiser:     Were  they  the  first  manufacturers  of  offset 
presses  in  this  country? 

Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  if  there  were  any  other  manu 
facturers  at  that  time,  but  Schmidt— as  long  as 
I've  been  down  there,  I've  been  fighting  for 
Harris  offset  presses. 

Teiser:     You  think  that's  the  best? 


35 

Diedrichs:   I  did.   And  Miehle,  in  the  meantime,  built  an 

offset  press.   They  were  trying  to  get  into  the 
Schmidt  Company  for  a  good  many  years.   But  I 
objected  to  it  because  we  stayed  with  Harris 
all  those  years.   Finally  they  got  one  in  here, 
when  Mr.  Shaw*came  in.   [Laughter] 

Teiser:     Mr.  Shaw  certainly  turned  things  upside  down, 
didn't  he? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   You  know  the  plant  was  built  on  the  old 
Donahue  mansion  grounds,  don't  you? 

Teiser:     I  didn't  know.   Peter  Donahue.   I  was  looking 
at  a  picture  of  the  house  and  didn't  recognize 
it. 

Diedrichs:   It  was  a  very  nice  neighborhood  at  that  time. 
There  used  to  be  some  beautiful  homes  up  on 
Harrison  Street.   It  used  to  be  [like]  Nob  Hill 
at  one  time.   I  remember,  when  I  was  a  young 
fellow,  they  used  to  have  big  parties  down  there 
at  the  Donahue  mansion,  and  have  a  canopy  over 
the  entrance  for  people  to  go  in. 

Teiser:     When  was  the  Donahue  mansion  torn  down  and  the 
olant  built? 

Diedrichs:  The  second  plant  was  built  in  1900.  They  moved 
from  Main  Street  to  Bryant  Street  in  1900.   It 
was  Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company  when  I 


* 
John  Shaw 


36 

Diedrichs:   first  knew  it. 

Teiser:     When  you  first  knew  it  [in  1902],   And  it 

changed  its  name  to  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company 

later? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 
Teiser:     After  the  fire? 
Diedrichs:   It  was  after  the  fire,  yes. 

Company  People  and  Operations 

Teiser:     But  the  ownership  and  management  remained  the 
same? 

Diedrichs:   The  same,  yes.   Only  there  were  different  men 

who  were  in  the  firm.   Like  you  might  have  heard 
of  Mr.  Jones,  of  Di ckman-Jones .   He  was  one  of 
the  big  owners  in  the  plant. 

Teiser:     Of  Mutual ? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   At  that  time  the  Traung  brothers  were  still 
running  the  plant,  after  the  fire.   Then  they  got 
in  some  trouble  down  there.   They  finally  got  out. 
The  next  foreman  was  Andy  Hynes.   He  was  assistant; 
He  was  a  pressman  down  there  and  they  made  him 
foreman.   After  he  was  foreman  for  a  while,  a 
fellow  by  the  name  of  George  Bastain  was  foreman. 
And  Bastain  was  foreman  for  a  while  after  Hynes 
got  out.   Then  Vic  Olsen  became  foreman,  and  I 


37 

Diedrichs:   was  his  assistant. 

Teiser:     Olsen's? 

Diedrichs:   Olsen's  assistant.   He  passed  away  in  1940,  and 
I  became  foreman  of  the  plant,  and  I  was  up 
until  I  retired. 

Teiser:     When  did  you  retire? 

Diedrichs:   In  '58--no,  '59. 

Teiser:     My  word,  that's  a  long  career! 

Diedrichs:   Fifty-seven  years. 

Teiser:     It  must  have  been  a  good  job. 

Diedrichs:   No,  no,  there  were  a  lot  of  troubles  and 
worries . 

Teiser:     You  were  foreman? 

Diedrichs:   I  was  foreman  of  the  pressmen  after  Mr.  Olsen 

passed  away.   Then  later  on  I  was  made  superin 
tendent  of  the  pressroom.   The  pressroom  got 
larger  all  the  time  in  the  meantime.   You  heard 
about  the  company  buying  out  the  Galloway 
Company? 

Teiser:     That's  a  seed  package  company,  isn't  it? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  they  specialized  in  seed  packets.   They 
were  on  Howard  Street.   There  was  a  Mrs. 
Schoning  that  owned  it.   She  had  two  sons,  Otto 
and  Herbert.   They  ran  the  business  for  her. 
The  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  bought  them  out. 


38 

Diedrichs:   Old  Max  bought  out  the  Schoning  company. 

Teiser:     About  when  was  that? 

Diedrichs:   I  couldn't  tell  you  the  exact  year.   But  they've 
been  with  the  [Schmidt]  company  for  the  last 
twenty  years,  or  more  than  that. 

Teiser:     After  World  War  I,  do  you  think  it  was? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  after  World  War  I,  I'm  sure.   Then,  of 

course,  you  know  they  built  this  building  across 
the  street*in  the  meantime. 

Teiser:     Yes.   What  was  that  built  for? 

Diedrichs:   That  was  to  expand  the  business,  more  room  and 

one  thing  and  another.   But  at  the  time  they  didn't 
have  enough  machinery  and  stuff  to  occupy  that 
building.   They  were  going  to  rent  it  out.   Fin 
ally  it  developed  that  they  moved  a  lot  of  the 
presses  and  stuff  from  this  side  [the  old  build 
ing]  to  that  side  of  the  street. 

Teiser:     That  newer  building  was  on  Second? 

Diedrichs:   Same  street. 

Teiser:     But  the  next  block  south? 

Diedrichs:   Right  across  the  street,  to  the  south.   They 
made  all  their  corrugated  boxes  over  there. 

Teiser:     Was  that  what  it  was  used  for  finally? 

Diedrichs:   The  ground  floor  was.   But  the  rest  of  the 

building--as  I  say--they  moved  the  presses  from 

*Plant  No.  2 


39 

Diedrlchs:   Galloway  Lithograph  Company  over  there.   That 

was  like  a  plant  in  itself,  because  the  Schoning 
brothers  used  to  run  that  under  a  separate,  you 
might  say—Schmidt  was  paying  for  everything, 
but  they  were  running  the  seed  bag  department 
over  there  just  as  if  it  was  their  own  plant 
down  on  Howard  Street. 

Teiser:     Did  it  occupy  two  floors  then? 

Diedrichs:   No,  no,  part  of  one  floor,  the  third  floor. 

Eventually  the  company  moved  the  transfer  room, 
which  was  in  the  old  building,  they  moved  that 
over  to  the  new  building,  and  plate  making  and 
artists  all  went  over  across  the  street. 

Teiser:     That  building  would  have  been  built  when?  About 
1920? 

Diedrichs:   I  have  something  here.   Just  a  minute,  I'll  show 
it  to  you.   Here. 

Teiser:     Oh,  that's  a  dedication  program.* 

Diedrichs:   1925.   This  is  the  entrance.*    That's  Mr. 

Richard  Schmidt  [on  page  5].  It  gives  you  a  lot 
of  dope  in  there. 

I  got  this  watch  when  I  retired. 


* 

Dedication  of  Plant  No.  Tvo  Schmidt  Litho.  Co., 
San  Francisco,  November  11,  1925.   Pamphlet. 

** 

Picture  on  cover  of  pamphlet. 


40 
Teiser:     Oh.  [Reading]   "Presented  to  Herman  Diedrlchs 

5/16/1902--1952,  by  the  employees  of  Schmidt 

Lithograph."  That's  a  beautiful  watch. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  the  sort  of  thing  they  used  to  print 

[showing  a  copy].   The  Tower  Time  they  used  to 

call  it.   They  used  to  put  out  this  paper  every 

month  or  so. 
Teiser:     They  had  a  lot  of  publications  and  things  for 

the  employees? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes.   Like  this  is  in  1920  [photograph 

belonging  to  Mr.  Diedrichs]. 

Teiser:     Oh,  that  must  be  one  of  the  parties. 
Diedrichs:   One  of  the  parties.   They  were  well-known  for  the 

parties . 

Teiser:  Did   they   give    a   party   every  year? 

Diedrichs:      Oh,    they   used   to   have    a   salesmen's    get-together, 

bring    in    all    the    salesmen   from   different   areas. 
Now,    this    [photograph]    is    the    last   press    they 

put    in   when    I   was   down   there.      It's    a   four-color 

press,    four-color  Harris    press.      These   are   some 

double  labels  they  printed  on  it  down  there. 
Teiser:     When  was  that  they  put  it  in? 
Diedrichs:   That  was  in  1958. 
Teiser:     Were  the  direct  litho  presses  single  colors? 

Did  you  just  run  them  through  repeatedly  for 

multiple  impressions? 


41 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   They  were  all  single-color 

presses.   They  were  single-color  presses  until 
we  came  back  from  Oakland.   Then  they  ordered 
two-color  presses.   But  they  were  still  direct 
presses . 

Teiser:     Were  these  aluminum? 

Diedrichs:   Aluminum.   They  were  direct.   And,  as  I  say,  the 
first  offset  press  we  had  was  installed  in  Oak 
land.   After  we  got  to  this  side,  then  they 
installed  a  larger  size  press.  Then  they  went  to 
a  larger  size.   Vic  Olsen  was  the  first  one  to 
run  the  offset  press. 

Teiser:     I  suppose  some  of  the  labels  required  many  colors, 
did  they? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes.   Well,  the  standard  label  at  that 

time  was there  was  yellow,  red,  dark 

blue,  light  blue,  and  they  used  to  run  a  pink-- 
that's  right.   It  was  five  colors.   Finally  they 
got  it  down  to  four  colors. 

Teiser:     Did  you  ever  do  more  than  five  colors? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes. 

Teiser:     What  was  the  most? 

Diedrichs:   Not  in  labels.   If  you  mean  advertising,  we  did 
ten  and  twelve  colors. 

Teiser:     For  what  kind  of  material  was  that? 


42 

Diedrichs:   For  any  kind  of  material,  ice  cream  material, 
advertising . 

Teiser:     Was  this  for  point  of  purchase  material,  for 
display  material? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     My  word!   The  registration  problem! 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   Well,  that's  where  the  four-color 
press  came  in  handy,  because  they  could  register 
all  the  colors  at  one  time.   You  know,  Louis 
Traung  was  the  first  one  to  install  a  four-color 
press.   He  had  Harris  make  the  first  four-color 
press  that  was  ever  built.   He  ran  it  right  down 
here  on  Battery  Street. 

Teiser:     In  the  Traung  Company?* 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     When  he  and  his  brother  left  Schmidt,  did  they 
just  go  directly  into  their  own  business? 

Diedrichs:   No,  he  and  a  fellow  named  Adam  Pringle  went  into 
business  together.   I  don't  know  how  many  years 
they  were  in  business  when--I  think  it  was 
Zellerbach  Paper  Company  got  behind  Louis  Traung 
and  started  him  in  business  down  here  on  Battery 
Street.   All  they  had  was  direct  presses  at  the 
time.   In  the  meantime,  Schmidt  was  printing  in 
offset.   So  finally  they  got  in  the  offset  game 


Traung  Label  and  Lithograph  Company 


43 

Diedrichs:   and  gradually  built  it  up  and  built  it  up.   Then 
Louis  Traung--it  was  his  own  idea  to  build  this 
four-color  press.   Nobody  thought  you  could 
print  four  colors  at  one  time.   They  thought 
the  colors  would  be  too  wet  to  print  on  top  of 
one  another.   So,  it  proved  a  success. 

Teiser:     Did  it  take  a  lot  of  special  ink  formulating? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  changed  inks  and  everything.   Had  to  have 
all  special  inks  for  it.   One  ink  wouldn't  trap 
on  top  of  another,  the  ordinary  ink;  they  had  to 
make  a  special  ink  so  that  the  colors  would  all 
print  on  top  of  one  another.   Otherwise  it's 
just  like  trying  to  paint  something. 

Teiser:     On  a  wet  surface? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     Did  Louis  Traung  work  out  any  of  the  ink  prob 
lems  himself?  Or  did  Harris  do  that? 

Diedrichs:   Harris  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  ink  problem. 
It  was  all  local,  all  between  Louis  Traung  and 
the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company.   You  know  we  had 
our  own  ink  plant? 

Teiser:     Yes.   I  saw  a  picture  of  it. 

Diedrichs:   Jack  Galvin  was  there,  and  Paul  Monelli.   He 

started  from  nothing.   This  goes  back  and  back. 
You  could  talk  for  years  on  it,  but  I'm  just 


44 

Diedrichs:   picking  spots.   But  when  I  went  down  to  work 

there  they  only  had  one  ink  mill  and  they  had  it 
out  in  the  varnish  room.   They  used  to  have- 
it's  hard  to  explain  it  —  just  like  a  stick  of 
wood  like  this  and  it  was  on  like  a  ladder,  only 
that  it  was  spaced  farther  apart.   They'd  var 
nish  a  sheet  and  hang  it  over  this  ladder,  or 
whatever  it  is  we  called  it,  and  varnish  another 
sheet  and  this  other  stick  would  come  up  and 
they'd  lay  it  over  there.   And  this  varnish 
machine  used  to  go  'way  up  about  a  hundred  feet 
in  the  air  and  come  down. 

Teiser:     It  would  travel  around? 

Diedrichs:   'Round, see.   In  the  meantime  the  varnish  would 

be  drying  on  the  sheet.   That's  the  way  they  had 
them  drying  the  sheets. 

Teiser:     This  was  like  a  traveling  belt? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   Now,  today,  they  varnish  a  sheet-- 
they  varnish  them  and  stack  them  up  in  piles. 

Teiser:     Do  they  run  under  a  heat  unit  as  they  leave? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   They  go  through  a  heat  unit  now.   And  it's 
very  simple.   They  come  out  all  ready  to  cut. 

Teiser:      How  long  did  it  take  them  to  dry  in  the  air 
that  way? 


45 
Diedrichs:   It  used  to  take  maybe  three  or  four  hours  or 

something  like  that.   They  had  only  one  ink  mill 
at  that  time.   An  old  fellow  by  the  name  of 
McMahon  used  to  run  it  out  there.   All  they  did 
was  grind  some  colors  through  it.   So  after  they 
got  established  over  here,  after  the  fire  .  .  . 
why,  there  was  a  chemist  down  in  the  shop  they 
hired.   His  name  was  Doc  Jaggard*  He  started 
this  ink  room  down  there  and  he  hired  Jack  Galvin, 
who  didn't  know  a  thing  aboutit.   Between  the  two 
of  them  they  mixed  different  colors  and  one  thing 
and  another.   And  it  developed  into  quite  a  bus 
iness  down  there.   They  made  all  their  own  inks, 
I  mean  all  their  own  special  colors.   They  made 
it  up  from  a  powder,  you  know--varnishing .   They 
bought  the  powders  to  make  the  colors.   They 
used  to  make  special  colors  for  posters,  for  ad 
vertising  and  for  labels,  made  all  their  own 
inks  down  there.   You  know  they  had  a  block 
department  and  a  corrugated  department  that  used 
to  use  ink  also.  The  ink  that  was  left  over  from 
the  lithograph  department,  that  they  couldn't  use 
any  more,  John  Galvin  used  to  grind  it  and  make 
colors  for  the  block  department  because  it  wasn't 
so  particular. 


Belmont  P.  Jaggard 


46 

Teiser:     What  did  the  block  department  do? 

Diedrichs:   Mostly  can  labels.   They  had  the  biggest  con 
tract.   They  had  a  contract  with  the  Alaska 
Packers  for  a  good  many  years,  printing  salmon 
labels . 

Teiser:     Why  do  you  call  it  the  block  department?  This 
is  the  letterpresses? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   They  printed  from  blocks. 

Teiser:     Oh,  from  electros  [electrotypes]? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     And  they're  called  blocks? 

Diedrichs:   Blocks, yes.   They  used  to  turn  out  millions  of 
salmon  labels  down  there  every  year.   They  were 
always  printing. 

Teiser:     How  many  colors? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  mostly  four  colors.   Millions  of  them. 

Teiser:     Were  they  single-color  printing  presses? 

Diedrichs:   They  were  for  awhile,  then  they  had  two-color 
presses.   Not  over  two-color. 

Teiser:     What  were  those,  Miehles? 

Diedrichs:   All  Miehles,  yes,  a  good  many  years  down  there. 
That  was  a  big  establishment,  you  know.   They 
started  printing  the  salmon  labels  on  letter 
presses.   Later  on  they  printed  them  all  on  litho 
graph  presses.   But  they  started  in  that  way. 


47 

Teiser:     I've  taken  you  away  from  the  ink  department. 
You  were  talking  about  developing  the  fast- 
drying  inks  for  the  four-color  lithograph  press. 
Did  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  work  with  the 
Traungs  on  developing  those  inks?  Was  Schmidt 
Lithograph  Company  interested  in  the  develop 
ment  of  that  four-color  press? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  Louis  Traung's  original  idea. 

Teiser:     He  didn't  ask  for  help  from  Schmidt  with  it? 

Diedrichs:   No,  no.   He  was  in  business  essentially  for 
himself  by  then. 

Teiser:     Did  he  get  help  from  the  local  ink  companies? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  absolutely.   Yes,  yes.  With  his  own  sug 
gestions  for  this  and  that.   And  they  improved 
those  inks  so  that  you  could  print  four  colors. 

Teiser:     Was  he  a  very  inventive  man? 

Diedrichs:   He  was  a  very  good  mechanic.   He  was  a  wonderful 
man.   Talk  to  anybody  in  the  trade,  you  know: 
Louis  Traung. 

Teiser:     Yes. 

Diedrichs:   Louis  Traung  and  his  brother.   When  I  first  went 
down  there,  his  brother  was  a  pressman,  he  was 
a  stone  pressman.   Louis  originally  was  a  press 
man.   He  became  a  pressman,  and  his  brother 
Charlie  got  to  be'way  up  in  the  union.   He  used 


48 

Diedrichs:   to  go  back  east  to  the  union  conventions,  and 
everything  else.   The  last  time  he  was  down  at 
Schmidt,  he  had  charge  of  the  art  room  down  there. 
He  was  promoted  so  he  had  charge  of  the  art  room, 
the  artists,  down  there.   And  they  finally  got 
out  of  there.   The  Schmidt  Company  found  out 
that  they  were  doing  business  with  an  ink 
company  and  getting  a  little  on  the  side  or 
something  like  that.   So,  it  finally  developed 
that  they  were  out. 

Teiser:     I  understand  standards  were  a  big  different  then. 
Mr.  Max  Schmidt,  Jr.,  told  me  there  was  a  fair 
amount  of  steal  ing  . 

Diedrichs:  Oh,  yes.  One  of  their  best  office  helpers  got 
away  with  quite  a  bit  of  money.  Then  he  killed 
himsel f . 

Teiser:     For  heaven's  sake! 

Diedrichs:  Just  down  on  Third  Street.  They  found  out  that 
he  was  getting  away  with  a  lot  of  money,  and  he 
took  his  life. 

Teiser:     To  go  back  to  the  block  department,  did  the 
regular  pressroom  foremen  and  superintendent 
have  to  handle  the  letterpress  presses  too? 

Diedrichs:   No,  there  was  a  man  by  the  name  of  Hildebrand, 
George  Hildebrand,  who  was  foreman  of  the  block 


49 

Diedrichs:   department.   And  this  George  Winberg  succeeded 
him  when  he  passed  away.   George  Winberg  was  in 
charge  of  the  block  department  right  up  'til 
the  time  he  passed  away. 

Teiser:     Did  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  continue  to  do 
letterpress  printing  until  fairly  recently? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  on  a  large  scale  that  stopped,  oh,  in  '56 
or  something  like  that.   They  were  printing 
Chesterfield  labels  for  a  good  many  years  down 
there.   They  had  a  contract.   And  that  was  all 
done  block.   Chesterfield  cigarette  labels. 

Teiser:     It  went  on  into  the  1950's? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes.   Later  than  that. 

Teiser:     I  see.   Where  was  the  composition  done? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  all  done  outside. 

Teiser:     Who,  mainly,  did  it? 

Diedrichs:   I  can't  think  of  the  name  of  the  company  that  did 
it,  but  it  was  all  done  outside. 

Teiser:     But  there  was  one  company  that  did  the  composition? 

Diedri  chs  :   Yes  ,  yes  . 

Teiser:     Were  they  nearby? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  within  a  short  distance.   Actually  they  had 
trucks  backing  in  there  all  the  time  with  blocks 
and  stuff.   We  had  what  we  call  a  job  room. 


50 

Teiser:     It  set  type? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     For  the  lithography? 

Diedrichs:   For  the  lithography  and  for  ...  it  didn't  make 

these  salmon  labels  [printed  on  the]  block  presses, 
but  it  set  type  for  all  kinds  of  other  printing. 
They  had  several  job  presses  up  there  that  they 
used  to  do  small  jobs  on. 

Teiser:     What  kind  of  presses  were  they? 

Diedrichs:   One  was  a  Miehle,  I  think.   Then  they  had  these 
other  presses  that  open  and  close.   [Laughter] 
I  forget  the  name. 

Teiser:     Were  you  at  the  1915  Panama  Pacific  txposition? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     Can  you  describe  the  Schmidt  building  there? 

Diedrichs:   No,  I  can't.   There  was  quite  an  exhibit  there. 
I  don't  know  whether  they  were  in  another  build 
ing,  or  what  they  had.   I  guess  they  had  a  booth 
in  another  building.   I  think  that  was  it. 

Teiser:     I  see.   Did  they  have  a  press  running? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   In  fact  they  made  a  proposition  with 

Harris--!  mean  Harris  made  a  proposition  with  them 
to  install  the  press  at  the  Exposition—no,  no! 
Harris  made  a  proposition  with  the  Schmidt  Litho 
graph  Company  to  sell  them  a  press,  or  donate  it 


Platen  presses 


51 

Diedrichs:      at    a   certain   price,    if   they'd    run    it    in    their 

plant,    down   here   on   Second   and   Bryant,    and   have 
people    come    in    to   see    it   at   demonstrations.      You 
see? 

Teiser:  I    see! 

Diedrichs:   At  that  time,  the  Exposition,  anybody  who  wanted 
to  see  the  Harris  offset  press  in  operation  would 
come  to  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  and  get 
the  demonstration  of  the  press  running  right 
there . 

Teiser:     Was  that  a  single-color? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  a  single-color. 

Teiser:     Wasn't  it  a  bother  to  have  people  trudging  into 
the  pressroom  constantly? 

Diedrichs:   No,  that  was  all  in  the  deal.   What  we  were  doing 
was  just  printing  the  regular  jobs,  just  going 
on  about  business  as  usual.   And  these  people 
would  come  in  and  look  at  it  and  ask  questions. 
Just  look  at  the  press  and  want  to  know  what  this 
is  for  and  that.   That's  the  way  it  worked  out. 

Teiser:     I'll  ask  another  question  now  that  maybe  your 
wife  should  answer.   In  some  of  the  pictures 
that  Mrs.  Stewart  Morris  gave  the  Bancroft 
Library,  there  are  a  good  many  young  women,  and 
I  believe  you  said  Mrs.  Diedrichs  was  a  press 


52 

Teiser:     feeder  at  one  time. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   [Calls  Mrs.  Diedrichs]   Mom!   Come  on  in 

a  minute.   Come  over  here  and  sit  down. 
Teiser:     I  was  saying  that  I  understood  that  at  one  time 

women  were  press  feeders  at  the  plant.   And  you 

were  one? 

Mrs .  D. :    That1 s  right. 

Teiser:     Wasn't  that  awfully  hard  work  for  a  woman? 
Mrs.  D.:    Sit  all  the  time;  that's  all  you  had  to  do.   Sit 

and  put  the  sheets  in  the  press.   That  was  all. 
Teiser:     The  men  brought  the  stacks  and  placed  them? 
Mrs.  D.:    Oh,  yes,  they  piled  them  up.   That's  all  you 

had  to  do.   You  could  stand  up  if  you  wanted  to, 

or  just  sit. 
Diedrichs:   But  the  sheets  had  to  register  then;  they  had 

to  be  fed  into-- 
Mrs.  D.:    There  was  a  guide  or  something  up  at  the  other 

end,  the  top  of  the  press.   You'd  bump  against 

that  and  you'd  put  the  sheet  into  that,  and  these 

things  would  go  and  go. 
Diedrichs:   Of  course  they  had  to  keep  the  press  running 

steady  all  the  time.   The  pressmen  would  bring 

the  sheets  and  put  them  up  on  the  feed  board  and 

roll  them  out  for  the  feeder  to  feed  the  press. 

They  had  to  keep  the  press  in  motion  all  the  time. 


53 

Mrs.  D.:    I  was  awfully  young  when  I  went  there,  because 
I  went  up  to  the  eighth  grade  in  school,  but  I 
didn't  wait  for  the  graduation.   My  father  was 
quite  perturbed,  but  there  was  a  young  girl 
lived  next  door,  and  she  kind  of  talked  me  into 
it.   That's  why  I  went  there.   But  then  my  sister 
and  I  had  to  go  to  night  school  for  a  year.   Then 
they  sent  us  to  Heald's  Business  College.   It 
was  after  the  fire.   It  was  temporarily  out  on 
Van  Ness  Avenue.   So  we  took  up  a  regular  busi 
ness  course,  typing  and  all  that.   Then  I  went 
from  there  into  a  lawyer's  office.   That  was 
kind  of  uphi 1 1  . 

Teiser:     And  you  found  a  husband  on  the  way. 

Mrs.  D.:    I  think  he  found  me.   I  wasn't  looking  for 

anybody  at  that  time.   [Laughter]   There  were 
so  many  young  peopl e--young  girls  and  young  guys 
down  there,  you  know  —  it  was  rather  nice. 

Teiser:     It  must  have  been  fun. 

Mrs.  D.:  Yes,  you  struck  up  an  acquaintance.  Then  we  had 
parties,  and  the  firm  would  give  picnics.  You'd 
meet  at  the  picnics  and  all  like  that. 

Teiser:     Did  many  of  the  young  men  and  young  women  who 
were  working  there  marry? 

Mrs.  D.:    Oh,  yes.   Quite  a  few  of  them,  yes. 


54 

Teiser:     I  just  was  wondering  really  what  it  was  like  to 
be  a  press  feeder  as  a  young  woman. 

Mrs.  D.:     It  was  fairly  simple  and  easy,  you  know.   Of 

course,  that  was  the  first  thing  I'd  ever  done. 

Diedrichs:   You  understand  we  used  to  print  four-and  five- 
color  labels.   And  these  girls  would  feed  the 
presses.   We  also  had  boys  feeding  the  presses. 
But  when  the  presses  had  to  be  washed  up,  from 
one  color  to  another.  .  . 

Mrs.  D.:    Or  any  manual  labor  .  .  . 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  then  the  girl  would  go  over  and  feed  a  press 
that  the  boy  was  feeding,  and  the  boy  would  have 
to  come  back  and  wash  that  press  up. 

Teiser:     Oh,  the  boys  did  the  dirty  work. 

Mrs.  D.:    Oh,  yes.   We  never  had  to  put  our  hands  to  a  thing 
Just  take  the  sheets  and   .  .  . 

Diedrichs:   Feed  the  presses. 

Teiser:     Did  some  of  the  girls  also  hang  paper  to  season? 

Diedrichs:   Not  down  at  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company. 

Mrs.  D.:    They  did  hang  it  in  the  varnish  room,  didn't 
they?   Or  take  the  sheets  off  in  the  varnish 
room? 

Diedrichs:   When  they  varnished  a  sheet,  they  put  it  onto  one 
of  these  bars  and  it  would  go  up  in  the  air. 

Mrs.  D.:    That's  the  first  department  I  went  into. 


55 

Teiser:     Then  somebody  would  have  to  take  them  off? 

Mrs.  D.:    We  had  to  take  them  off.   They'd  come  up  from 

the  first  floor  down  there  to  the  second  or  third, 
wasn '  t  it? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Mrs.  D.:    And  there'd  be  so  many  on  a  bar.   And  we  had  to 
take  them  all  off. 

Diedrichs:   But  that's  different  from  seasoning  stock  to 
print.   All  our  lithograph  paper  has  to  be 
seasoned,  that  is,  if  it  isn't  seasoned  in  the 
[paper]factory .  We  used  to  take  it  in  the  plant., 
they  had  seasoning  rooms  where  they  used  to  hang 
it  up  for  twenty-four  hours  or  so,  then  take  it 
down  for  printing. 

Mrs.  D.:    Then  after  the  fire  and  earthquake  I  didn't  work 
there.   I  went  across  the  Bay  when  they  [the 
Schmidt  Lithograph  Company]  went  across  the  Bay, 
and  just  worked  there  a  short  while.   Then  I 
didn't  work  there  any  more. 

Diedrichs:   That  was  1906;  then  we  were  married  in  1908. 

Mrs.  D.:    That's  right,  1908. 

Diedrichs:   Fifty-eight  years  married. 


56 

Diedrichs:   We  have  seven  grandchildren  and  thirteen  great- 
grandchi Idren . 

Mrs.  D.:    We  only  have  three  children  ourselves.   We  are 
all  pleased  with  the  whole  family.   They've  all 
done  well.   You  can't  ask  for  anything  more. 
Good  health,  thank  God,  so  you  can't  ask  for 
much  more. 

Teiser:     I  should  say  not. 

Mrs.  D.:    Yes.   We  stayed  in  the  same  house,  right  here. 
We  built  the  house  about  a  year  or  two  after  we 
were  married,  had  an  architect  design  it  and 
the  contractors  build  it,  and  we've  stayed  here. 
Maybe  I  have  a  little  bit  of  Scotch  with  the 
Irish,  because  I  hate  to  go  out  and  put  more 
money  in,  after  you  have  a  home  and  you've  raised 
your  children  in  it. 

Mutual  Label  &  Litho.  Co.  1903  Photograph  Album 

Teiser:     I  have  numbered  the  pages  in  the  photograph 

albums.   What  I  have  done  in  talking  with  Mr. 
Max  Schmidt,  Jr.  and  Mr.  Ben  Schmidt  is  to  give 
the  page  numbers  as  we've  gone  through  them.   If 
you  could  look  at  them  in  order  and  make  any 
comments.  .  .  . 

Diedrichs:   They  probably  told  you  who  all  these  people  were. 


57 

Teiser:     Some  of  them  they  have,  yes.   Could  you  start 

with  page  1?  This  is  the  Mutual  Label  and  Litho 
graph  Company  album  of  1903. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   That's  the  first  building. 

Teiser:     Where  was  the  tower  building  in  relation  to  that? 

Diedrichs:   It  wasn't  erected  at  that  time.   You  see,  this 
is  Bryant  Street. 

Teiser:     To  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   And  this  is  Second  Street. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   And  the  tower  was  built  here. 

Teiser:     Oh,  beyond  on  the  left  edge  of  the  picture. 

Diedrichs:  That's  right.  This  was  the  building  before  the 
fire.  It  had  three  stories  on  the  side  and  one 
in  the  middle.  That  gave  the  pressroom  more  light 

Teiser:     Oh,  that  was  why  that  middle  section  was  low. 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  because  the  pressroom  was  down  there.   Then 
when  they  built  in  1908,  they  wanted  more  room 
so  they  built  a  skylight  in  the  center  of  the 
building.   This  is  the  original  building  that 
was  built  in  1900.   At  least  they  started  up 
there  in  1900. 

Teiser:     Here  is  page  2. 

Diedrichs:   Well,  of  course,  this  is  the  office,  which  is 

out  of  my  line.   But  I  know  all  the  people  there. 


58 
Diedrichs:   There's  Mr.  Rahsskopff,  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt, 

Mr.  Jones--who  was  one  of  the  shareholders  at 

the  time  —  he  was  a  big  shot  in  the  company—Mr. 

Max  Schmidt,  and  I  don't  know  who  this  is. 
Teiser:     Mr.  Max  Schmidt  is  on  the  right  end,  and  the  one 

you  don't  know  is  second  from  right. 

Here  is  page  3. 
Diedrichs:   This,  of  course,  is  the  office.   You  don't  care 

to  know  anybody. 

Teiser:     If  you  see  anybody  you  recognize,  yes. 
Diedrichs:   There's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt,  I  know. 
Teiser:     Oh,  sitting,  with  the  cap  on. 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  that's  right. 
Teiser:     Did  he  always  wear  that  cap? 
Diedrichs:   A  good  part  of  the  time.   Here's  Mr.  Richard 

Schmidt  here,  sitting  at  the  desk. 

Teiser:     Sitting  at  the  desk,  in  the  distant  right? 

* 
Diedrichs:   By  that  door. 

Teiser:     With  his  hand  on  top  of  a  book  or  something 

of  the  sort. 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 
Teiser:     Who's  the  woman  next  to  him.   Do  you  recognize 

her? 

Diedrichs:   No.   I  know  this  young  fellow  here. 
Teiser:     In  the  foreground? 

* 
In  front  of  the  open  door. 


59 

Diedrichs:   His  name  is  Gamble,  Frank  Gamble. 
Teiser:     Page  4,  the  office  again. 
Diedrichs:   Of  course,  we  didn't  get  into  the  office  at  that 

time,  very  much. 

Teiser:     Page  5.   Can  you  name  them? 
Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  the  first  three  gentlemen  on  the 

left,  but  the  next  is  Mr.  Rahsskopff.   This 

gentleman  I  don't  know,  but  this  is  Mr.  Richard 

Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Far  right.   I  think  this  is  "German  Max"  standing 

up.   He  sai  d  i  t  was . 
Diedrichs:   I  think  it  was,  but  I  didn't  want  to  commit 

my  s  e  1  f . 

Teiser:     This  is  page  6. 
Diedrichs:   This,  of  course  is  —  I've  got  these  written  down 

here  —  the  artists  and  engraving  room.   These  are 

all  artists  and  engravers.   You  can  see  them  here, 

they  were  working  on  stones.  They  used  to  call 

it  stipple  work. 
Teiser:     That's  to  the  right.   Did  the  artists  do  the 

general  designs  and  then  the  engravers  execute 

them?  Or  did  the  artists  work  directly  on 

stone? 
Diedrichs:   The  artist  worked  directly  on  stone.   They  were 

called  the  originals.   The  originals  would  be 


Max  Schmidt,  Jr. 


60 

Diedrichs:   transferred  to  the  regular  press  plates. 
Teiser:     How  did  you  distinguish  between  artists  and 

engravers,  then,  in  that  department? 
Diedrichs:   Engraving  on  stone  is  different  than  art  work. 

Like  commercial  work,  the  engraver  would  engrave 
the  script,  and  all  that  stuff.   An  artist 
would  —  for  printing  colors,  four  and  five  colors 
at  a  time  —  they'd  have  to  make  a  separate  original 
for  each  color.   And  they'd  do  the  stipple  work. 
That's  the  way  the  work  was  done,  by  stipple,  at 
that  time. 


Teiser:     Page  7. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  paper  stock  department  and  seasoning 

room,  where  they  seasoned  the  paper.   This  was 

the  foreman,  Mr.  Morrow. 
Teiser:     Standing? 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  with  the  truck.   I  don't  know  who  the  girl 

was . 
Teiser:     Did  they  use  girls  in  that  department  a  good 

deal? 
Diedrichs:   Well,  for  laying  out  sheets.   You  see,  this  is 

all  paper  that's  seasoning.   They  used  to  season 

it  that  way  in  those  days.   They  didn't  hang  the 


61 

Diedrlchs:   paper  like  they  did  in  later  years.   These  were 
laid  out  in  trays. 

Teiser:     Are  they  wooden  trays? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  wooden  trays.   You  see,  those  trays  are 
very  narrow,  and  very  light.   They  are  like 
slats,  to  let  the  air  go  through.  Well,  they 
take  about  that  many  sheets  and  put  them  in  one 
tray.   Then  put  another  tray  on  top,  and  then 
take  a  few  more  sheets.   You  can  see  them  there. 

Teiser:     Yes.   Did  the  girls  do  the  lifting  of  the  trays? 

Diedrichs:   The  trays  are  very  light. 

Teiser:     I  see.   Here's  page  8. 

Diedrichs:   I'm  a  little  bit  dubious  about  that  one. 

Teiser:     Let's  see,  Mr.  Max  Schmidt,  Jr.  said  those  were 
wood  engravings. 

Diedrichs:   That's  what  I  thought  they  were,  engravings,  but 
I  didn't  want  to  commit  myself. 

Teiser:     In  the  racks. 

Diedrichs:   Here's  a  bandsaw  where  they  cut  out  all  the 
blocks . 

Teiser:     Here's  page  9. 

Diedrichs:   That's  the  stone  grinding.   Here's  the  size  of 
these  stones  . 

Teiser:     That  big  white  thing  toward  the  right? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  that's  a  stone.   I'll  show  you  more  later  on 


62 

Diedrlchs:   Here's  the  machine  that  they  used  to  rotate, 
and  it  had  a  part  on  top  that  used  to  grind 
these  stones.   They  used  to  have  to  throw 
pumice  stone  and  sand  in  there  to  grind  all  the 
old  work  off  the  stone. 

Teiser:     The  machine  you're  describing  is  the  round  one 
toward  the  left? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Then  when  they  come  out  of  there,  these 

* 
men  back  here  —  that's  Mr.  Warren.  .  . 

Teiser:     Standing  at  the  back,  with  the  moustache? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   He's  doing  what  they  call  polishing  the 

stone.   After  it  comes  out  of  there  he  smoothes 

it  all  off. 
Teiser:     By  hand? 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  by  hand.   There's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt  [Jr.] 

in  back  there  too. 
Teiser:     In  the  dark  suit,  between  the  two  men  who  are 

doing  hand  polishing? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   I  know  these  other  men,  but  I 

can't  think  of  their  names. 
Teiser:     This  is  page  10. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  a  section  of  the  transfer  room.   This  is 

a  large  stone.   See  how  large  that  is?  You  were 

asking  how  big  they  were,  yesterday.   And  this 

man's  name  is  Dick  Heinrich. 


Michael  J.  Warren 


63 

Teiser:     Standing  right  in  the  center  foreground? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   He  was  a  transfer  man,  what  they  called  a 
transferer  at  that  time.   This  is  a  large  press 
for  transferring  the  work  onto—well,  I  forget 
what  they  called  it.   To  a  stick-up  sheet,  we'd 
say.   And  these  presses  back  here  are  small  hand 
presses  that  the  men  worked.   This  was  the  large 
one  where  they  put  these  big  stones  in. 

Teiser:     What  are  these  things  in  the  rack  to  the  far 
left  there? 

Diedrichs:   Those  are  all  stones. 

Tei  ser:     This  i  s  page  1 1 . 

Diedrichs:   This  is  another  section  of  the  transfer  room. 
This  is  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt. 

Teiser:     To  the  far  left? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Here's  George  Caldwell. 

Teiser:     To  the  far  right. 

Diedrichs:   And  Charlie  Martin. 

Teiser:     Left  of  him. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  I  know  the  others,  but  I  can't  recall 
their  names. 

Teiser:     What's  this  thing  right  in  the  foreground? 

Diedrichs:   That's  a  hand  press.   Each  transfer  man  operated 
one  of  these  hand  presses. 

Teiser:     So  there's  a  whole  row  of  hand  presses  there  in 
the  picture. 


64 

Diedrichs:      That's    right. 

Teiser:  Page    12. 

Diedrichs:   And  here's  another  section  of  the  transfer  room. 

Teiser:     What  are  these  sheets? 

Diedrichs:  Those  are  .  .  .  couldn't  say  what  that  is  now. 
There's  Mr.  Cal dwell,  'way  in  the  back,  again. 
It's  hard  to  see  him. 

Teiser:     Oh,  yes,  he's  the  man  to  the  left  in  the  distance. 

Diedrichs:   I  can  recall  all  these  faces,  but  I  can't  remember 
the  names. 

Teiser:     What  is  this?  Are  these  hand  transfer  presses? 

Diedrichs:   That's  the  same  as  you  saw  on  the  other  page. 

Teiser:     I  see,  the  same  as  11. 

Diedrichs:   You  see  they  are  the  same.   There's  a  man  for 

each  one  of  these  presses.   And  they  are  all  done 
by  hand. 

Teiser:     All  hand-powered? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  that's  right. 

Teiser:     With  a  crank? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  there  was  a  crank  on  the  side  of  them.   What 
they  do  is,  they  take  a  label,  an  original  like 
this.   It's  on  stone,  and  you  know  grease  and 
water  don't  mix.   Wherever  the  work  is,  that's 
grease.   The  other  part  of  the  stone,  the  water 
keeps  this  hand  roller  from  picking  up  ink  on 


65 
Diedrichs:   the  part  of  the  stone  that  they  don't  want  it 

to  print  on.   See? 
Tei  ser :     Yes . 
Diedrichs:   So  they  roll  this  up  until  it  gets  a  nice  black 

impression.   And  they  take  a  piece  of  transfer 

paper  and  lay  it  on  like  that. 
Teiser:     On  top  of  it. 
Diedrichs:   And  they  put  some  cardboard  and  stuff  on  top  to 

get  a  good  impression.   They  they  fold  over 

like  this. 
Teiser:     They  fold  over  a  hinged—what  do  they  call  that? 

Diedrichs:   I  dont  know  what  it  was.   They'd  fold  this  down 
over  the  stone. 

Teiser:     Over  the  top. 

Diedrichs:   Then  he'd  turn  this  and  grind  it  through  here. 
And  that  would  force  the  pressure  of  that  black 
from  the  stone  onto  a  piece  of  transfer  paper. 
That's  one  impression  he'd  have.   If  there  were 
fifty  labels  on  a  sheet,  he'd  have  to  do  that 
fifty  times,  off  that  one  stone,  to  make  one  job, 
Not  only  that,  but  there's  five  colors,  so  that 
would  mean  five  each  time.   That  was  hand  trans- 
ferri  ng . 

Teiser:     So  that  would  make  five  times  fifty.   What  kind 


66 

Teiser:     of  paper  is  transfer  paper,  what's  it  like? 

Diedrichs:   It's  composition;  they  make  it  right  at  the  shop. 

Teiser:     They  don't  still,  do  they? 

Diedrichs:   No,  because  they  don't  use  stones  any  more. 

Teiser:     What  kind  of  paper  was  it? 

Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  what  you'd  call  what  they  made  it 

out  of,  but  it  was  some  kind  of  gelatin,  a  paste 
like  that  they'd  put  on  this  paper.   It  was  just 
like  when  you  were  a  little  girl,  remember,  you 
used  to  transfer  from  a  piece  of  paper  to  your 
hand  those  colored  objects?   It  would  come  off. 
He'd  make--say  he  had  fifty  labels  on  the  sheet, 
he'd  have  to  pull  fifty  impressions.   And  when  he 
got  all  these  impressions  pulled,  then  they  had 
what  they  called  a  key  plate--a  large  plate  like 
this—that  was  all  ruled  out  in  sections,  so  that 
each  one  of  these  labels  would  fit  in  that  sec 
tion.   And  they  used  to  do  what  they  called  stick 
up  these  transfers  on  this  large  key  plate.   So 
they  would  make  a  sheet  of  labels,  say  fifty 
labels,  and  there'd  be  fifty  of  these  all  stuck--. 
They  had  to  register  it  right  to  a  hair  on  this 
key  plate  so  when  the  plate  was  ready  for  the 
press  each  color  would  fit. 

Teiser:     How  were  the  fifty  impressions  placed  on  that  key 
plate? 


67 

Diedrlchs:   That  key  plate  would  be  put  through  the  big 
machine.   That's  a  great  big  machine,  see? 

Teiser:     As  is  shown  on  page  10  of  the  album. 

Diedrichs:   And  that  would  be  transferred  to  the  stone.   The 
key  plate  would  be  1 ayed  on  the  stone.   This 
would  go  through—just  like  the  small  press,  only 
it  was  a  larger  machine.   In  that  way,  they'd 
get  all  those  impressions  on  one  stone.   Then 
that  stone  had  to  be  what  we  called  etched,  be 
processed  for  the  pressroom.   It  had  to  go  down 
to  the  pressroom.   Then  it  would  be  put  in  the 
press.   We'd  print  from  that  stone. 

Teiser:     And  if  there  were  five  colors  there'd  have  to  be 
five  stones? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     What  was  the  key  plate  made  of? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  pretty  heavy,  because  it  was  more  of  a-- 
I  don't  know  —  lead  or  steel,  or  what  it  was. 

Teiser:     It  was  a  metal? 

Diedrichs:   It  was  some  kind  of  metal.   The  idea  was  not  to 

have  these  labels  stretch  or  get  out  of  position. 
They  had  to  have  something  very  heavy  and  flat 
to  keep  the  position  that  these  labels  were  stuck 
up  in . 

Teiser:     Here's  page  13. 

Diedrichs:   Look  at  the  size  of  those  stones.   You  were 


68 

Diedrichs:   asking  the  other  day. 

Teiser:     Those  were  the  ones  that  It  took  two  men  to  lift? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     What  department  is  this? 

Diedrichs:   Another  section  of  the  transfer  room. 

Teiser:     And  page  14? 

Diedrichs:   I  have  here  [on  list]  14  and  15:   sections  of 
job  room. 

Teiser:     Now  this  was  where,  you  said,  they  did  set  some 
type  too. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     What's  that  all  over  the  back  wall,  on  page  14? 

Diedrichs:   Those  are  all  blocks,  you  know. 

Teiser:     Electros? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     And  what  kind  of  a  press  is  that  in  the  fore 
ground? 

Diedrichs:   They  used  to  call  them  pony  presses. 

Teiser:     Letterpresses? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  letterpress.   That's  a  letterpress,  nothing 
to  do  with  lithography. 

Teiser:     And  here's  15. 

Diedrichs:   That's  part  of  the  job  room. 

Teiser:     What  are  those  presses? 

Diedrichs:   It  looks  like  a  Miehle  press. 


69 

Teiser:     In  the  center. 
Diedrichs:   Miehle  cylinder  press.   This  is  Mr.  Wise.   He 

was  the  foreman,  the  fellow  with  the  moustache. 
Teiser:     He  has  a  moustache  and  a  little  hat. 
Diedrichs:   And  I  remember  this  fellow.   His  name  was  Frankie 

Klein. 
Teiser:     He's  to  the  right  foreground,  in  the  apron, 

near  the  press  in  the  center. 
Diedrichs:   He  was  a  pressman.   There's  a  lot  of  them  there 

that  I  don't  know,  I  don't  recall. 
Teiser:     It's  a  long  time  ago. 

Diedrichs:   Anyhow,  he  married  a  girl  from  down  there. 
Teiser:     Klein? 
Diedri  chs :   Yes . 
Teiser:     Page  16. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  part  of  the  litho  pressroom.   These  are 

all  aluminum  rotary  presses,  direct  presses,  not 

offset.   All  aluminum  direct  presses.   This 

pressman  here  is  Bill  Ward. 
Teiser:     In  the  center. 
Diedrichs:   And  the  other  pressman,  right  behind  him,  is 

Billy  Bergk.  And  I'm  here,  a  feeder  at  the  time. 
Teiser:     Oh,  just  above  Bergk.  You're  standing  up,  with 

an  apron  on. 
Diedrichs:   On  the  press.   No  apron.   That's  a  pair  of 


70 

Diedrichs:   overalls,  I  guess. 
Teiser:     Oh,  I  see,  you're  standing  with  one  hand  on  the 

feed  board. 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  on  the  feed  board.    That's  the  second 

press  [from  the  left].   There's  the  third  press 

And  this  is  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Oh,  yes.   He's  standing.  .  . 
Diedrichs:   He's  looking  down  at  the  labels.* 
Teiser:     The  labels  in  the  press  that  you're  feeding. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   There's  a  young  fellow  right  over  here; 

his  name  is  Albert  Morrison. 
Teiser:     He's  right  in  front  of  the  rollers  of  the  first 

press  to  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   He's  a  feeder.   This  gentleman's  head  right  in 

here;  that's  Louis  Traung,  the  foreman. 
Teiser:     Let's  see  how  we  can  identify  him.   He  has  dark 

hair  and  his  head  is  directly  under  a  hanging 

light. at  the  back  of  the  room. 
Diedrichs:   Yes, behind  the  board  there. 

Teiser:     The  feed  board  of  the  third  press  from  the  left 
Diedrichs:   He's  got  a  vest  on.   In  back  of  him  is  George 

Simonsen.   He  was  a  pressman  at  the  press. 
Teiser:     Page  17.   Here  are  the  Traung  brothers.   Which 

is  which? 
Diedrichs:   Well,  [laughter]  the  one  to  the  left  is  Louis. 

9f 

Actually  a  poster. 


71 
Diedrichs:   And  the  one  to  the  right  is  Charlie  Traung.   And 

these  are  stone  presses,  Hoe  stone  presses. 

This  feeder  is  Bill  Lampe. 

Teiser:     The  fellow  in  the  overalls  up  in  the  center? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   He's  feeding  the  press.   Those  are  three 

stone  presses,  three  Hoe  stone  presses,  that  they 

printed  commercial  work  on. 

Teiser:     How  big  a  stone  would  they  take? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  28  by  42. 
Teiser:     This  is  page  18. 
Diedrichs:   And  here  is  a  section  of  the  litho  pressroom. 

These  are  four  stone  presses,  four  Campbell  stone 

presses . 

Teiser:     Campbell  presses? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   It's  a  different  style  press  than  the  other, 

but  they  are  all  stone  presses.   These  in  back 

here  —  there  are  three  more  in  back. 
Teiser:     In  the  back  row. 
Diedrichs:   And  this  one  rotary  press. 
Teiser:     On,  on  the  far  right  is  a  rotary  press? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   I  have  it  written  down  here,  in 

case  you  want  to  know. 

Teiser:     But  the  others  are  all  Campbell  stone  presses? 
Diedrichs:   Campbell  stone  presses,  that's  right. 
Teiser:     What  kind  of  rotary  press  was  it?  Was  that  one 

of  the  aluminum  presses? 


72 
Diedrichs:   Aluminum  press,  yes.    Now  do  you  want  to  start 

over  here  at  the  left? 
Teiser:     Yes. 

Diedrichs:   Here's  a  pressman  here;  his  name  is  Dan  Hart. 
Teiser:     On  our  left. 
Diedrichs:   Here's  another  pressman;  his  name  is  Dave 

Ramsey . 

Teiser:     Next  to  him. 
Diedrichs:   Here's  a  feeder  of  that  press.   His  name  is  Chris 

Vanderveen.   This  fellow  up  here  on  the  feed 

board  is  ... 
Teiser:     The  next  one  to  the  right  you  don't  know,  but 

the  next  one  is.  .  . 

Diedrichs:   Frank  Gillespie.   And  here  is  Billy  Berqk. 
Teiser:     In  front  of  him. 
Diedrichs:   Billy  Berqk,  my  pressman. 
Teiser:     Ah  yes,  he's  in  the  overalls  there. 
Diedrichs:   And  here  I  am  again.   Feeding  the  Campbell  press. 
Teiser:     You're  standing  up  with  your  arms  crossed? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   To  take  the  picture.   Otherwise 

we  '  d  be  all  over. 
Teiser:     You're  just  about  in  the  center  of  that  picture. 

Who's  the  fellow  right  in  front  of  you? 
Diedrichs:  That's  Dave  Powers.  He  was  a  pressman. 
Teiser:  Who's  the  fellow  in  the  suit?  He  looks  out  of 

place. 


73 

Diedrichs:   I  wouldn't  know  him.   Then  in  the  back  here 

is  Gus  Bouquet.   He  was  a  French  boy,  I  think. 
Teiser:     Third  from  the  right,  in  the  distance.   His  head 

is  against  a  white  patch  of  wall. 
Diedrichs:   Here's  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Yes,  he's  first  right,  in  the  foreground. 
Diedrichs:   You  can't  miss  him. 
Teiser:     Yes.   He  must  have  gotten  all  over  the  plant 

all  of  the  time.   Page  19. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  a  section  of  the  litho  pressroom.   And 

this  is  an  aluminum  direct  rotary  press. 
Teiser:     On  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   And  these  are  stone  presses. 
Teiser:     The  other  two  are  stone  presses? 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     Are  they  Hoes  or  Campbells? 

Diedrichs:   They're  Hoe  presses.   This  is  Gus  Bouquet  again. 
Teiser:     Center  foreground. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   I  don't  know  who  the  girl  is.   I  forget 

her  name.   And  this  is  Charlie  Traung. 
Teiser:     He  has  a  whit  shirt  and  a  dark  tie  and  an  apron 

of  some  sort. 
Diedrichs:   He's  looking  down.   Right  in  back  of  him  is  Billy 

Bergk. 


74 

Teiser:     To  Charlie  Tracing's  left. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  standing  here  is  Andy  Hynes. 

Teiser:     Now  he  has  a  white  shirt  and  no  tie,  and  over 
alls. 

Oiedrichs:   And  in  back  of  him  is  Dan  Hart.    He's  got  a 
vest  on,  or  something. 

Teiser:     He's  up  to  the  right  of  Hynes? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   I  can't  recall  the  other  fellows.   I  know 
their  faces,  but  I  can't  recall  them.   It  was  a 
funny  thing  down  there,  you'd  work  with  people 
all  your  life,  speak  to  them  and  all,  and  you 
don't  know  their  last  name  —  in  other  departments, 
I  mean,  that  you'd  come  in  contact  with  all  the 
time. 

Teiser:     This  is  20. 

Diedrichs:   Here  these  are  all  Hoe  presses,  all  stone  presses, 
all  Hoe  presses.   This  girl  feeder  is  Annie 
Schluter. 

Teiser:     She's  standing  up  against  the  window  on  the  far 
left. 

Diedrichs:   And  this  is  Dan  Hart. 

Teiser:     He's  the  first  man  to  the  far  left. 

Diedrichs:   There's  what  they  call  a  bronze  machine  here, 
right  here,  to  the  side. 

Teiser:     The  first  machine  on  the  left. 


75 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   That's  where  they  bronze  sheets.   They'd 
take  the  sheets  over  there  and  feed  them  in  by 
hand  and  they'd  go  through  a  bronzing  process, 
and  they'd  come  out  down  here.   I  don't  know 
if  you  want  to  get  all  these  names. 

Teiser:     Any  that  you  can  give. 

Diedrichs:   That's  Charlie  Kaiser. 

Teiser:     He's  standing  in  front  of  the  wall,  right  of 
the  bronzing  machine. 

Diedrichs:   Hews  the  pressman  of  this  press  here.   Here's 
Charlie  Rolet. 

Teiser:     His  head  is  right  against  the  second  press  there. 

Diedrichs:   He's  pressman  of  that  press.   Here's  Charlie  Troll 

Teiser:     He  has  a  light-colored  shirt. 

Diedrichs:   He  has  a  moustache,  hasn't  he? 

Teiser:     A  moustache,  and  overalls. 

Diedrichs:   This  [magnifying  glass]  might  help.    That  was 
Charlie  Troll.   Here's  Louis  Traung. 

Teiser:     In  the  white  shirt  with  the  tie  and  the  vest. 

Diedrichs:   Here's  Johnny  McCormick. 

Teiser:     With  the  moustache  and  the  little  white  tie. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  Eddie  Freeze. 

Teiser:     To  the  far  right,  in  the  foreground. 

Diedrichs:   He  was  a  feeder. 

Teiser:     What's  this?   Is  this  just  a  rag  hanging  on  the 
press? 


76 

Diedrichs:   It's  just  a  rag. 
Teiser:     They  forgot  to  take  1t  away  for  the  picture. 

This  work  on  that  sheet  to  the  far  right.   They 

look  like  posters,  small  posters. 
Diedrichs:   I'll  check  on  that.   That's  a  large  sheet  of-- 

could  be  advertising  posters. 
Teiser:     Here 's  page  21 . 
Diedrichs:   Page  21:   one,  two,  three  four  Hoe  stone  presses 

All  in  one  section  there.   The  pressman  is  Eddie 

Walters. 

Teiser:     In  the  foreground. 
Diedrichs:   Her  first  name  was  Lydia,  but  I  don't  recall 

her  last  name. 

Teiser:     Lydia  on  the  left,  Eddie  Walters,  then.  .  . 
Diedrichs:   Josie  Desmond.   She  was  a  hand  feeder.  This  is 

Adam  Pringle,  pressman. 

Teiser:     You're  naming  them  from  left  to  right. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   I  don't  know  this  girl.   But  this  girl  is 

Annie  Schluter. 

Teiser:     Again  Annie  Schluter. 
Diedrichs:  Yes.  And  Charlie  Rolet,  the  pressman.  And 

Charlie  Kaiser,  the  pressman. 
Teiser:     Page  22. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  part  of  the  embossing  department.   They 

used  to  use  platen  presses  for  embossing.   This 


77 

Diedrichs:   is  the  foreman,  Dick  Ellis. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 
Diedri  chs :   Yes  . 
Teiser:     Page  23. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  a  section  of  the  block  department.   You 

know,  type  in  blocks. 
Teiser:     These  are  letterpresses? 
Diedrichs:   Letterpress,  that's  right.   Morino. 
Teiser:     Fellow  in  the  center  foreground  in  the  white 

shirt,  just  behind  the  press. 

Diedrichs:   Joe  Moreno.   And  this  is  Charlie  Farrell. 
Teiser:     In  the  dirty  apron  at  the  right? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   He  was  the  brother-in-law  of  Louis  Traung. 

Louis  Traung  married  his  sister.   This,  of 

course,  is  a  Miehle  press,  and  they've  got  a 

bronzer  attached  to  it. 
Teiser:     Oh,  to  the  left  end. 
Diedrichs:   You  see,  the  sheets  come  out  and  go  through  the 

bronzer  and  come  out  there.   And  all  this  piping 

here  is  where  they  draw  the  excess  bronze  out. 
Teiser:     Oh,  the  powder. 
Diedrichs:   So  it  won't  fly  around. 
Teiser:     Oh,  I  see.   I  wondered  how  they  handled  it  in  a 

pressroom  so  it  didn't  fly  around  in  the  air. 
Diedrichs:   At  one  time  they  had  special  rooms  that  they  had 


78 

Diedrichs:   the  machines  in,  and  they  had  them  all  enclosed 
with  glass.   They  had  them  with  a  little  window 
where  you  had  to  raise  it  open  about  that  much 
and  slip,  slide  the  sheets  in.   They  used  to  have 
Chinamen  feeding  the  presses  because  nobody  wanted 
to  do  that  job.   It  was  a  dirty  job. 

Teiser:     Page  24. 

Diedrichs:  This  is  another  section  of  the  block  printing 
department.  Here's  this  fellow  —  this  is  Andy 
Nelson. 

Teiser:     The  second  fellow  from  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Can  you  see  him? 

Teiser:     Yes . 

Diedrichs:   He  got  his  arm  taken  off  down  there. 

Teiser:     How? 

Diedrichs:   In  a  Miehle  press. 

Teiser:     My  word! 

Diedrichs:   Well,  he  had  a  rag  in  his  hand,  and  he  was  wiping 
a  form  off.   The  rag  caught  his  arm  and  pulled  him 
right  in. 

Teiser:     Were  there  many  accidents  like  that? 

Diedrichs:   Occasionally.   There  was  a  girl  feeder,  in  the 
block  department  also,  had  her  arm  taken  off  on 
the  same  press.   She  was  trying  to  take  a  sheet 
out.   Sometimes  a  sheet  isn't  fed  properly  into 


79 

Diedrichs:   the  press  and  it  gets  caught  in  the  rollers. 
There's  a  lot  of  ink  on  the  rollers,  and  they 
have  to  get  all  that  out  of  the  rollers  before 
they  can  start  running  again.   Somehow  or  other 
she  was  reaching  in  for  a  piece  of  paper. 

Teiser:     Could  this  fellow  continue  working  with  one  arm? 

Diedrichs:   He  did,  up  until  the  time  he  died.   He  was  a 
pressman. 

Teiser:     He  continued  to  be  a  pressman? 

Diedrichs:   For  a  short  time  after.   Then  he  was  put  in 

charge  of  the  corrugating  department,  when  we  had 
the  corrugating  department.   Along  side  of  him, 
again,  is  Charlie  Far re  11.   In  the  center  with 
the  dirty  apron.   A  lot  of  these  girls  I  know  by 
name,  but  I  can't  recall  most  of  them. 

Teiser:     Page  25. 

Diedrichs:   Twenty-five  and  twenty-six:   bindery  and  cutting 
room.   His  name  was  Martin  Boyle. 

Teiser:     He's  standing  kind  of  in  the  center,  in  the  light 
clothes  with  the  dark  bow  tie,  on  page  25. 

Diedrichs:   He  was  a  cutter.   He  was  a  brother-in-law  of 
mine.   Right  next  to  him  was  my  sister. 

Teiser:     The  seated  girl  in  the  white  collar  and  dark 
blouse? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 


80 

Teiser:     What  was  her  name? 
Diedrichs:   Deborah  Diedrichs.   She  married  Martin  Boyle 

from  the  shop.   There's  another  marriage  down  at 

the  shop. 

Here's  Josie  Lynch. 
Teiser:     She's  the  girl  in  about  the  center  with  the  dark 

arm  guards  on,  and  the  light  blouse.   She  has 

lots  of  hair. 
Diedrichs:   And  this  is  Mr.  Gilbert.   He  used  to  run  cutting 

machines  down  there. 
Teiser:     Second  man  from  the  right,  with  the  white  apron. 

This  is  page  26. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  a  section  of  the  bindery.    Those  are  all 

dies. 
Teiser:     What  in  the  world  did  they  use  all  those  different 

kinds  of  dies  for? 
Diedrichs:   Different  labels.   They  were  cut  different  shapes 

and  everything. 

Teiser:     What  were  the  girls  doing? 
Diedrichs:   They  were  probably  helping  to  get  some  of  those 

sheets  die  cut.   I  don't  see  the  die  cutting 

machine  there. 
Teiser:     Page  27. 
Diedrichs:   Pages  27  and  28,  box  and  carton  department.   Raisin 

cartons  they  used  to  make. 


81 
Diedrichs:   Page  28.   The  gluing  machines.   This  is  Ed  Pierce; 

he  was  the  foreman  of  that  department. 
Teiser:     The  fellow  in  the  moustache  in  the  overalls  and 

hat.   All  of  these  gluing  machines  were  run  from 

a  central  drive? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   In  those  days  that's  all  they  had,  pulleys; 

pulleys  running  each  machine,  the  motors. 
Teiser:     Here's  29. 
Diedrichs:   That's  where  they  made  the  electrotypes.   In 

recent  years  they  sent  them  out  to  be  made. 

Before  that  they  made  them  right  in  the  shop. 
Teiser:     These  are  sinks  to  the  right? 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     A  good  messy  job,  wasn't  it? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  it  was  a  dirty  job.   This  was  the  foreman, 

Paul  Ny. 
Teiser:     First  fellow  to  the  left. 

Page  30. 
Diedrichs:   Machine  shop.   We'll  start  over  here.   This  is 

Clarence  Beach. 

Teiser:     The  first  on  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   This  was  the  foreman,  Jules  Ny.   He  was  the 

brother  of  Paul  Ny,   the  fellow  with  the  mous 
tache  . 
Teiser:     He's  the  third  from  the  left,  rot  counting  the 


82 

Teiser:     man  [looking  through  the  door]  in  the  next  room. 

Diedrichs:   The  man  in  the  back  is  Bob  Hancock.   He  was  the 
engineer. 

Teiser:     Page  31. 

Diedrichs:   This  was  the  electric  room.   That  was  what  Mr. 
Max  Schmidt,  Electric  Max,  had  charge  of. 

Teiser:     Thirty-two. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  a  section  of  the  cutting  room  and  bindery. 

Teiser:     Thirty-three. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  packing  room,  where  they  used  to 

pack  all  the  labels  and  send  them  out.   They  used 
to  send  them  out  in  cartons  and  cases  at  that 
time.   I  don't  know  any  of  these  fellows. 

Teiser:     Page  34. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  varnish  room.   It's  a  part  of  the 
varnish  room.   This  is  a  varnish  press.   And 
this  is  what  I  was  trying  to  explain  to  you.   They 
fold  these  sheets  over  these  bars.   Do  you  see 
them.   They  go'way  up  two  or  three  floors  in 
the  process  of  drying.   They  would  come  down. 
Girls  would  put  them  on  these  racks,  and  when 
they'd  come  down  on  the  other  side,  they'd  have 
to  take  them  off. 

Teiser:     This  was  the  traveling  drying  rack? 

Diedrichs:   At  that  time,  yes. 

•* — 
Max  A.  Schmidt,  son  of  Richard  Schmidt. 


83 

Teiser:     The  varnish  was  just  put  on  by  a  regular  press, 
is  that  right? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Oh,  no.   See,  there's  a  trough  here? 

Teiser:     Yes,  just  to  the  right  of  the  cylinder. 

Diedrichs:   The  varnish  is  in  here. 

Teiser:     Below  the  cylinder  to  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   The  sheet  would  be  fed  here  and  go  around  there 
and  get  varnished.   This  roller  here  would  var 
nish  each  sheet  as  it  went  around.   They  went 
in  up  here  and  came  out  below. 

Teiser:     On  the  tapes  and  out  on  the  board? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  they  were  taken  from  there  and  put 
over  on  these  racks  to  go  up  and  dry.   This 
fellow  who  was  running  the  varnish  press  at  the 
time  was  Henry  Hageman. 

Teiser:     He's  the  man  on  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   He  has  a  cap  on.   And  this  was  the  foreman. 

Teiser:     Second  from  the  right. 

Diedrichs:  McBride  was  his  name.  No.  What  was  the  name 
of  the  foreman  of  the  varnish  room?  McMahon, 
that  was  it.  Gentleman  with  the  cap  on. 

Teiser:     This  is  35. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  a  section  of  the  bindery. 

Teiser:     What  are  those  machines? 

Diedrichs:   Roughening  machines.   They  used  to  run  these 


84 

Diedrichs:   labels  through  in  sheets  and  roughen  them,  like 
a  rough  design.   Did  you  ever  see  them? 

Teiser:     No.   Was  it  actually  roughening  the  texture? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     So  it  gave  a  pebbly  texture. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     Why  did  they  do  that?   So  they  wouldn't  scuff? 

Diedrichs:   In  one  way,  yes.   But  it  was  quite  popular  to 

have  those  sheets  roughened  like  that.   It  made 
a  nice  looking  sheet.   After  it's  printed  and 
roughened  it'd  give  a  nice  appearance. 

Teiser:     Was  that  done  for  labels  mainly? 

Diedrichs:   Labels,  mostly  labels. 

Teiser:     Page  36. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  an  ink  storeroom.   This  man  here  is, 
again,  Mr.  McMahon.   See  him  in  back  there? 

Teiser:     The  third  man  from  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  Mr.  Hageman  again. 

Teiser:     Hageman  is  second  from  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Mr.  McMahon  was  foreman  of  the  varnish  room.   He 
had  charge  of  the  varnish  room  and  the  storage 
of  the  Ink  department  down  there  at  the  time. 
They  used  to  buy  inks  in  cans  and  store  them. 
See  here? 

Teiser:     Oh  yes,  I  can  see  the  cans. 


85 

Diedrichs:   This  is  an  ink  mill. 

Teiser:     To  the  left.   And  what's  this  to  the  right? 

Diedrichs:   I  was  trying  to  figure  it  was  an  ink  mill,  but 
it  doesn't  look  like  one  to  me.   I  guess  it  is. 
That's  all  of  that  book  unless  you  want  to  know 
these  two  pictures  here. 

Teiser:     Yes.   This  one  that's  called  "Schmidt  Litho,  3600 
impressions  per  hour."    I've  numbered  it  51-B. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  an  offset  press. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   And  it's  feeding  sheets  into  a  bronzer.   You  see 
the  sheet's  coming  out  of  here,  going  up  here, 
through  the  bronze  machine,  comes  out  here.   This 
is  a  varnish  machine,  that  I  was  trying  to  show 
you  on  the  other  picture.   They  were  dickering 
on  buying  some  of  these.   These  are  from  the 
salesmen.   The  sheets  came  down  in  here. 

Teiser:     On  the  tapes. 

Diedrichs:   And  these  grippers  come  around  and  take  the  sheet 
As  it  goes  down  here,  this  roller  rolls  varnish 
all  over  the  sheet,  and  the  sheet  comes  out  here. 

Teiser:     On  the  board? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     I've  numbered  this  51-C. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  same  thing,  but  in  a  different 


86 

Diedrichs:   position.   This  is  Andy  Hynes. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Schmidt  Li  thograph  Co . 
1909  Photograph  Album 

Teiser:  This  is  a  1909  album.   Page  1. 

Diedrichs:  That,  of  course,  is  the  building. 

Teiser:  Page  2. 

Diedrichs:  This  is  the  building,  another  view  of  it.   It 

described  it  here. 

Teiser:  Page  3. 

Diedrichs:  This  is  the  Second  Street  view. 

Teiser:  Page  4. 

Diedrichs:  It  shows  all  the  names. 

Teiser:  Where  are  they  sitting,  do  you  know? 

Diedrichs:  Director's  room. 

Teiser:  Mr.  Chickering  was  just  a  director? 

Diedrichs:  He  was  a  director,  and  I  believe  he  was  a  lawyer. 

Teiser:  Which  of  these  were  active  in  the  company? 

Moffit  was  not  in  the  company.   How  about  Hueter? 

Diedrichs:  No,  he  wasn't  active. 

Teiser:  Who  was  Borden,  I.  L.  Borden?  Was  he  in  the 

company? 

Diedrichs:  He  wasn't  active,  no. 

Teiser:  What  was  Richard  Schmidt,  Jr.'s  career? 

Diedrichs:  He  was  the  son  of  Max  Schmidt,  the  founder? 


87 

Telser:     And  what  happened  to  him?   Did  he  stay  in  the 
company? 

Diedrichs:   He  stayed  in  the  company,  and  he  was  president 
of  the  company  after  his  father  died.   He  was 
chairman  of  the  board.   He  passed  away  from 
cancer.   He  used  to  go  to  lunch  with  Max  Schmidt[Jr.] 
Ben  Schmidt,  Harry  Heppert,  Ernie  Wuthmann,  Sr., 
and  myself.   This  all  goes  back  about  ten  or 
twelve  years.   We'd  go  every  Monday. 

Teiser:     Harry.  .  .  ? 

Diedrichs:   Harry  Heppert  was  foreman  of  the  transfer  room. 

Teiser:     What  was  Richard  Schmidt,  Jr.  like?  Was  he  an 
affable  sort  of  man? 

Diedrichs:   Oh  yes,  very.   For  a  good  many  years  down  there 
he  was  purchasing  agent.   His  dad  finally  took 
him  in  the  office.   And  he  had  a  desk  in  his 
father's  office,  old  man  Max  Schmidt.   When  the 
old  man  got  called,  Richard  Schmidt,  Jr.  took 
his  father's  place.   His  sister  was  married- 
Mrs.  Wuthmann. 

Teiser:     Then  Richard  Schmidt  Sr. ,  what  was  he  like? 

Diedrichs:   He  was  Max's  brother. 

Teiser:     Did  you  know  him? 

Diedri  chs :   Oh, wel 1 . 

Teiser:     What  kind  of  a  man  was  he? 


88 

Diedrichs:   A  wonderful  man.   Here  he  is. 

Teiser:     Yes.   In  the  pictures  he  looks  quite  stern. 

Diedrichs:   He  was  very  quiet.   When  I  was  down  in  the  press 
room  you  could  tell  the  time  of  day  by  when  he'd 
make  his  round.   He'd  go  through  that  whole  plant 
every  day.   And  you  knew  just  what  time  Richard 
Schmidt  was  coming  through  the  plant. 

Teiser:     What  was  his  duty? 

Diedrichs:   He  was  vice-president.   He  used  to  sell  a  lot  of 
big  companies,  contracts  and  one  thing  and 
another. 

Teiser:     Did  Max  Schmidt  go  through  the  plant  too,  each 
day? 

Diedrichs:   Not  as  often,  no.   No,  he  stayed  in  the  office 
most  of  the  time.   Occasionally  he'd  go  through 
the  plant. 

Teiser:     Max  Schmidt,  Sr.  must  have  been  a  kind  of  a 
joker,  was  he? 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  he'd  kid  everybody.   But  he'd  kid  you  in  a 

way--in  other  words  he'd  say  what  an  easy  job  you 
had,  but  at  the  same  time  he'd  want  you  to  be 
doing  something. 

Teiser:  Someone  said  that  there  were  a  certain  number  of 
people  in  the  company  who  really  weren't  working 
very  hard.  Is  that  right?  Or  did  everyone  seem 
to  you  to  be  working  hard? 


89 
Diedrichs:   They  all  had  their  jobs  to  do.   There  is 

another  —  this  is  number  4--that's  Max  Schmidt, 

Mr.  Hueter,  Chickering. 
Teiser:     Here's  5.   These,  I  guess,  are  all  people  within 

the  company,  aren't  they? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 
Teiser:     "Mr.  Rahsskopff,  General  Superintendent."   What 

did  he  do?  What  was  he  like? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  head  of  all  the  equipment.   He  was  head 

of  the  machine  shop.   Any  new  equipment,  any 

repai  rs . 

Teiser:     Was  he  a  good  mechanic? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   I  mean  he  never  worked,  he  just  supervised. 
Teiser:     Did  he  understand  machinery? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes.   From  my  understanding  he  was  a  watch 

maker  or  something. 
Teiser:     What  did  Mr.  Schoof  do? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  a  great  friend  of  the  old  man's,  and  they 

worked  him  in  there  on  a  job.   I  don't  know  what 

he  really  did,  but  he  was  around  the  office  quite 

a  bit. 
Teiser:     That's  what  I  think  I  mean  about  Mr.  Max  Schmidt 

sometimes  inviting  his  friends  to  be  employees, 

and  they  didn't  always  work  very  hard.   Is  that 

right? 


90 

Diedrichs:   That  might  be  one  of  the  reasons.   [Laughter] 
Teiser:     Is  that  true,  though,  that  sometimes  he  gave 

people  jobs,  and  he  was  just  being  kind  to  them 

and  didn't  want  them  to  work  so  hard? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 
Teiser:     Page  6. 
Diedrichs:   I  know  this  fellow.   It's  Louis  Brune.   He's  the 

brother  of  Fred  Brune. 
Teiser:     The  fellow  to  the  right. 

This  is  page  7. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  Miss  Cardoza. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   She  married  Richard  Schmidt,  Jr.,   the  son  of 

Max  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     He  is  sitting  to  the  right  of  a  desk  at  the  right 

[looking  at  the  camera]. 
Diedrichs:   And  this  is  Carl  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Behind  him  at  the  right  of  the  other  desk. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   He's  Richard  Schmidt's  son.   And  this  is 

Richard  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Richard  Schmidt  is  sitting  at  the  desk  with 

Richard  Schmidt,  Jr. 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     And  who  is  sitting  at  the  desk  with  Carl  Schmidt? 
Diedrichs:   Mr.  Schoof. [Gerhard  Schoof] 


91 
Teiser:     Was  Miss  Cardoza*a  relative  of  Tony  Cardoza, 

the  bookbinder? 

Diedrichs:   No.   She  had  a  brother  who  worked  down  there. 
In  fact,  her  father  worked  on  the  stones.   He 
was  a  stone  grinder.   They  gave  him  a  job  up 
there  grinding  stones.   There's  a  lot  of  help 
here  that  I  remember,  but  I  can't  think  of  their 
names . 

Teiser:     Here's  page  8.   Office,  east  side. 

Diedrichs:   I  know  this  fellow  here.   He  was  Bill  Reed. 

Teiser:     The  man  at  the  desk,  just  behind  the  woman  at 
the  front  desk. 

Diedrichs:   He  was  a  salesman.   Turned  out  to  be  one  of  their 
best  salesmen  at  one  time. 

Teiser:     Page  9.   Office,  south  side,  sketching  department. 

Diedrichs:   I  could  guess  at  some  of  these  names,   but  I 
want  to  be  sure  about  them. 

Teiser:     Page  10. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  chemical  department.   And  this  is 
Doc  Jaggard  that  I  spoke  to  you  about. 

Teiser:     To  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   He  started  the  ink  department,  in  the  present  form 
that  it  was  before  they  sold.   And  Jack  Galvin 
was  the  guy  who  ran  the  ink  department. 

Teiser:     Did  he  start  it  when  you  returned  from  Oakland? 
After  the  fire? 

Correctly    "Cardozo." 

*Before   the  merger  with    Stecher-Traung    Lithograph   Co 


92 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  oh  yes.   After  the  fire.   And  1t  developed 

into  quite  an  ink  room. 
Teiser:     Page  11.   That's  everybody.   That's  the  new 

building,  isn't  it? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   There  may  be  a  million  in  there.   That  is 

after  the  fire. 
Teiser:     Page  12,  artist  department.   That's  in  the  new 

building  too,  isn't  it? 
Diedrichs  :   Yes  ,  it  is  . 

Teiser:     Where  was  that,  with  light  on  both  sides? 
Diedrichs:   It  was  next  to  the  office  down  there.   I  know 

all  of  these  fellows,  but  I  can't  think  of 

their  names.   The  fellow  with  the  cigar  in  his 

mouth,  Row  is  his  name. 
Teiser:     He's  got  a  hat  on? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   That  guy  worked  all  day--cigar  in  his 

mouth;  he  never  lit  it.   He  had  a  cigar  in  his 

mouth  all  day  long. 
Teiser:     Page  13. 

Diedrichs:   It  describes  it  here--engravi ng  department. 
Teiser:     Oh  yes,  metal  engraving. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  the  foreman,  Mr.  Iken. 
Teiser:     Fellow  standing.  .  . 
Diedrichs:   With  the  moustache. 
Teiser:     Page  14. 


93 

Diedrichs:   Here  he  is  again. 
Teiser:     He's  the  man  to  the  right. 

What  did  the  metal  engraving  department  engrave? 

Plates  for  .  .  .? 
Diedrichs:   For  the  blocks. 

Teiser:     Page  15.  "Transfer  Department,  looking  East." 
Diedrichs:   There,  you  see,  I  could  name  you  a  lot  of  these 

fellows.   This  is  Dick  Bailey,  with  the  moustache. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   And  this  fellow's  name  is  Miller. 
Teiser:     In  the  foreground. 
Diedrichs:   And  here's  Dick  Heinrich. 
Teiser:     He's  over  there  second  from  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   And  here's  Joe  Dickman. 
Teiser:     Dick  Heinrich  has  overalls  on  and  is  standing 

with  his  hand  on  his  hip.   And  Joe  Dickman.  .  . 
Diedrichs:   He's  taking  the  stone  out  of  the  case.   See,  he's 

got  the  stone  there. 
Teiser:     Yes. 

Here's  page  16. 
Diedrichs:   That's  part  of  the  transfer  room  also.   This  is 

Joe  Dickman  again. 
Teiser:     He  has  on  a  ... 
Diedrichs:   Necktie  and  an  apron. 
Teiser:     And  he's  standing  with  one  arm  raised  behind  another 

man  with  a  necktie  and  an  apron. 


94 

Diedrichs:   That's  Charlie  Martin  behind  him.   The  fellow 
with  the  moustache  there.   His  name  is  Axel 
Soderwall.   That's  his  brother,  not  the  foreman. 

Teiser:     Oh,  the  other  was  Gus? 

Diedrichs:   Gus  Soderwall,  yes.   I  know  all  these  guys.   I 

can't  just  say  their  names  right  out.   Of  course, 
this  fellow  here,  again,  with  the  hand  roller- 
see  he's  got  his  hand  on  a  roller  there. 

Teiser:     Roller  in  one  hand  and  his  other  hand  on  his 
hip? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   That's  Dick  Heinrich.   This  is  Miller  again. 
He's  a  ...  I  told  you  in  the  other  picture. 

Teiser:     His  head  is  right  in  front  of  the  pillar  in  the 
center. 

Diedrichs:   Caldwell,  that's  Caldwell. 

Teiser:     The  man  second  from  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Caldwell.   He's  the  fellow  I  was  trying  to 
remember. 

Teiser:     Page  17.   That's  the  transfer  department. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  stone  grinding  that  I  think  I  showed 
you  in  the  other  [Mutual  Label  album].   See, 
there's  the  stone  grinding  machine.   And  here's 
this  Mike  Warren  again. 

Teiser:     Oh,  he's  got  a  moustache  and  a  tie  on?   Far  right? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  the  fellow'way  in  the  back  here  is  Jack 


95 

Oledrichs:   Armstrong.   Well,  I  wouldn't  bother  with  that. 
But  I'm  sure  of  this  guy,  Mike  Warren. 

Teiser:     Page  18.   Aluminum  plate  department. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  what  they  used  to  grain  the  plates  on. 
We  call  these  plate-graining  machines.   They'd 
put  this  plate  in  this  trough  here  and  clamp  it 
down  there  tight  and  they'd  throw  sand  and  pumice 
stone  in  on  there  and  mix  with  water.   And  they'd 
have  marbles,  just  like  the  kids  play  with,  some 
were  steel  and  some  were  regular  marbles.   This 
press  would  start  a  rotary  motion  like  that,  and 
all  these  marbles  would  move  around  and  take  the 
work  off  and  grain  the  plate.   After  they  were 
through  with  the  plate  —  and  they  didn't  want  to 
save  it  for  any  reason  —  they '  d  put  them  in  here. 
Then  they'd  process  it  after  that,  and  it  would 
be  ready  to  be  transferred. 

Teiser:     For  re-use. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     How  thick  were  those  plates?  How  often  could 
they  use  them? 

Diedrichs:   They  were  twenty  thousandths  of  an  inch,  twenty 
and  twenty-five  thousandths  of  an  inch. 

Teiser:     That  thin! 


96 
Diedrichs:   Oh  yes.   Wait!   Pardon  me'.  Twenty-gauge  plate, 

not  thousandths.   I'm  sorry.   And  this  is  Mr. 

Caldwell  again. 

Teiser:     The  man  to  the  left. 
Teiser:     Nineteen  then.   Book  bindery.   Lots  of  girls. 

Twenty.   Book  bindery  again,  and  more  girls. 
Diedrichs:   More  girls,  yes. 
Teiser:     You  certainly  had  a  lot  of  pretty  girls  in  that 

pi  ant. 

Diedrichs:      At    that    time    they   had   them. 
Teiser:  Twenty-one. 

Diedrichs:      Job   printing. 
Teiser:  Ah   yes.      Those   were    little   job    presses,   weren't 

they? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  they  were  platen  presses,  see. 
Teiser:     Page  22  is  the  carton  department. 
Diedrichs:   They  die-cut  these  sheets  on  these  machines  for 

the  box  department.   They'd  run  them  through  and 

die  cut  them.   As  they'd  come  out  they'd  have  to 

run  them  through  a  gluing  machine  after,  you  know. 
Teiser:     Why? 
Diedrichs:   To  make  up  the  box. 
Teiser:     I  see. 

Diedrichs:   Those  are  raisin  cartons.   They  did  a  lot  of  those 
Teiser:     Page  23.   Carton  department. 


97 

* 

Diedrichs:   I  think  we've  seen  most  of  those.   Box  depart 
ment,  carton  cutting  and  scoring,  flat  presses. 

Here's  the  foreman,  Ed  Pierce. 
Teiser:     Oh,  with  the  cap  on  and  the  moustache,  second 

from  right. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Here's  Charlie  Tofanelli. 
Teiser:     To  the  far  right. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   He  became  foreman  of  that  department  years 

after  Mr.  .  . 
Teiser:     What  is  this  in  the  left  foreground?  Are  those 

dies  on  the  top  of  that  stand? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   They'd  have  to  make  them  up.  Those  were 

dies  that  they'd  make  up  for  this  platen  press, 

to  cut  out  the  cartons. 

Teiser:     Twenty-four.   Carton  Department. 
Diedrichs:   Folding,  gluing  machines.   They  ran  them  through 

these  gluing  machines. 

Teiser:     That  thing  to  the  left  is  a  gluing  machine? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   After  they  were  all  die-cut  and  everything 

Here's  Mr.  Pierce  again,  the  foreman  of  the 

department. 
Teiser:     Ah  yes,  in  the  cap  and  moustache,  second  from 

right. 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 
Teiser:     Page  25. 

* 

In  the  Mutual  Label  Litho.  Co.  1903  Photograph 
Al  bum. 


98 

Diedrichs:   Factory  office.   This  is  Oscar  Heath. 
Teiser:     Standing  in  the  foreground? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   Mr.  Rahsskopff  in  back. 
Teiser:     At  the  desk. 
Diedrichs:   And  it  looks  to  me  like  Max,  but  I  wouldn't 

swear  to  it. 
Teiser:     I  think  that  he  said  that  was  he  himself,  Max, 

Jr. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 
Teiser:     At  the  desk  to  the  left. 

Twenty-six.   Shipping  office. 
Diedrichs:   Mr.  Hartmann. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   He  had  charge  of  the  shipping  office. 
Teiser:     Did  he  always  wear  a  derby? 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  always. 
Teiser:     Twenty-seven. 
Diedrichs:   Here  he  is  again. 
Teiser:     Oh  yes,  he  is  second  from  the  right.   Who  is 

that  fellow  who  looks  like  a  western  sheriff,  on 

the  right? 
Diedrichs:   This  guy?  His  name  was  Mr.  James.   He  had 

charge  of  the  door  there.   The  shipping  office 

was  right  next  to  the  entrance  on  Bryant  Street. 

And  Mr.  James  had  charge  of  everything  that  came 

in  and  went  out  down  there. 


99 

Teiser:     Twenty-eight,  offset  press  department. 
Diedrichs:   These  are  offset  presses  that  were  put  in  right 

after  the  fire,  in  the  new  building.   This  Is 

Andy  Hynes. 

Teiser:     To  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   He  was  foreman  at  the  time. 
Teiser:     Is  that  Mr.  Rahsskopff  next  to  him? 
Diedrichs:   Mr.  Rahsskopff,  yes. 
Teiser:     Second  from  right. 
Diedrichs:   Here's  Chris  Vanderveen. 
Teiser:     On  the  left  end. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  Bill  Mullens. 
Teiser:     Second  from  left. 
Diedrichs:   He  was  a  roller  maker  down  there.   And  Richard 

Schmi  dt . 

Teiser:     Third  from  left,  to  the  front. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   Then  back  there  is  Vic  Olsen. 
Teiser:     Right  behind  Richard  Schmidt. 
Diedrichs:   The  little  fat  fellow  there  is  Scotty  Jackson. 
Teiser:     With  his  left  hand  up  on  the  equipment.   One 

hand  holding  a  lever  of  some  sort  and  the  other 

hand  up. 

Diedrichs:      Yes.      And   the   fellow   standing    in   back   of  him-- 
Teiser:  To   the    right. 

Diedrichs:      Yes,    to   the    right--his    name   was    Durham.      And 

Mr.  Rahsskopff  and  Mr.  Hynes. 


100 

Teiser:     What  kind  of  offset  presses  were  they? 

Di  edri  chs :   Harri  s . 

Teiser:     Single-color? 

Diedrichs:   That's  a  single-color,  that's  right. 

Teiser:     Page  29. 

Diedrichs:   Now  these  are  three-  and  two-color  aluminum 

presses.   They  were  direct  printing,  not  off 
set.   This  was  a  three-color. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  George  Simonson.   He  was  a  pressman  on 
that  press. 

Teiser:     He's  in  the  center. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  here  was  Andy  Hynes.   He  was  the  fore 
man  . 

Teiser:     Third  from  right,  with  the  overalls  and  the  white 
shirt. 

Diedrichs:   In  back  of  him  was  George  Bastain.   He  was  a 
pressman. 

Teiser:     To  the  upper  right? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Up  here  on  the  press.   Up  here  is  Louis 
Traung . 

Teiser:     Oh  yes,  in  the  shirt,  and  with  a  vest  on. 

Diedrichs:   He  always  wore  a  vest. 

Teiser:     Did  he  stand  up  there  like  that  all  the  time,  or 
just  while  he  was  having  his  picture  taken? 


101 

Diedrichs:   While  he  was  having  his  picture  taken.  [Laughter] 
Teiser:     Page  30.   Single-color  aluminum  press. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   Well,  these  are  direct,  not  offset  presses. 

Of  course,  this  is  Mr.  Rahsskopff  again. 
Teiser:     To  the  left.   Is  this  Richard  Schmidt  just  to 

the  right  of  him? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   The  pressman  has  a  cap  on.   That 

was  Frank  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Was  he  any  relation? 
Diedrichs:   No,  no  relation. 

Teiser:     He's  against  the  third  pillar  from  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   Here's  George  Bastain  again.   He  was  a  pressman 

at  that  press. 

Teiser:  He's    in    the    lower    right. 

Diedrichs:      The   others    are   just   helpers. 

Teiser:  Thirty-one.      Single-color   aluminum   presses    again. 

Diedrichs:      These    are    the   presses    after   the    fire.    They're 

all    single-color   aluminum   rotary   presses.      This 

is    the   press    that    I    ran    at   the   time. 
Teiser:  Oh,   you're   the   man    in    the    foreground   to   the 

left  —  the   first   man    to   the    left? 
Diedrichs:      Yes.      Here's    Louis    Traung    and    Richard   Schmidt, 

Billy    Bergk. 
Teiser:  Louis   Traung    is   with    the    tie    and   the   vest,    in 

about   center.      Who    is    the   other   fellow  with    the 


102 

Telser:     tie  and  vest,  to  his  left.   Next  to  the  pillar? 

Diedrichs:   He  was  just  a  feeder. 

Teiser:     BillyBergkis  between  Louis  Traung  and  Richard 
Schmidt . 

Diedrichs:   Here's  Frank  Schmidt  again. 

Teiser:     Oh,  to  the  far  right,  last  man  over  on  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     Did  he  spell  his  name  the  same  way  as  the  other 
Schmidts? 

Diedrichs:   S-c-h-m-i -d-t . 

Teiser:     Page  32. 

Diedrichs:   "Offset  presses  in  distance."  This  is  the 

bronzing  room.   For  a  while  they  used  to  have 
all  these  bronze  machines  enclosed  in  a  room,  I 
told  you,  like  that,  so  that  the  bronze  wouldn't 
fly  around.   There's  a  Chinaman,  they  used  to 
have  Chinamen  feeding  the  sheets  in.   The  boys 
would  take  the  printed  sheets  from  the  pressroom 
and  bring  them  into  here,  and  the  Chinaman  would 
feed  them  and  they  would  come  out  down  here. 

Teiser:     Page  33. 

Diedrichs:   Here  are  two-color  and  single-color  Miehle 

presses,  looking  south.   This  is  George  Winberg.- 

Teiser:     Second  from  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   He  was  running  the  feeder  on  that  press.   He  later 


103 
Diedrichs:   became  foreman  of  that  department.   Here  is 

Louis  Traung  of  the  litho  press  department. 

And  George  Hildebrand;  he  had  charge  of  the 

block  department. 
Teiser:     I  see.   These  are  standing  in  the  foreground, 

toward  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  and  these  are  all  Miehle  presses.   That's 

a  two-color  Miehle  press.   And  here's  Andy 

Nelson,  the  pressman. 
Teiser:     Second  from  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   He's  the  man  that  had  his  arm  taken  off.   And 

if  you  look  closely  at  these,  you  can  see  that 

they  are  all  salmon  labels,  that  I  was  telling 

you  about. 
Teiser:     Oh,  yes! 

Page  34. 
Diedrichs:   Pressroom,  center  aisle.   These  are  Miehle  presses 

here  again.   Here's  George  Hildebrand  again,  the 

foreman. 
Teiser:     He's  in  the  center  with  a  piece  of  paper  in  his 

hand. 

Diedrichs:   And  here  is  Andy  Nelson. 
Teiser:     To  the  right  of  Hildebrand. 
Diedrichs:   He's  the  pressman  on  that  two-color  press.   These 

all  are,  on  each  side  of  the  aisle. 


104 

Teiser:  Miehles   on   both    sides    of   the    aisle? 

Diedrichs:      Yes. 

Teiser:  This    is    an    automatic    feeder,    isn't    it? 

Diedrichs:      That's    right.      They    had    all    automatic    feeders 

after   the    fire. 
Teiser:  Thirty-five. 

Diedrichs:      North    side   of   general    pressroom.      Here's    Mr. 

Hildebrand    again. 

Teiser:  In   the   center   foreground,    leaning   on   the    press. 

Diedrichs:      Yes.      Here's   Joe   Reyes;    he's    a   pressman   on   that 

press . 

Teiser:     Just  to  the  left  of  Mr.  Hildebrand. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   I  don't  know  the  next  man.   Now  there's  a 

Miehle  press  with  a  bronzer  attached,  see? 
Teiser:     Oh  yes.   To  the  distant  left. 
Diedrichs:   You  see,  it's  coming  up  here  and  gone  down  this 

way. 

Teiser:  Thirty-six. 

Diedrichs:      General    pressroom.      And    these    are    type   presses. 

That's    Mr.    Hildebrand    again. 
Teiser:  Mr.    Hildebrand    is    the    first   man    to   the    right? 

Diedrichs:      Yes.      This    is    the   brother-in-law   of   Charlie 

* 
Traung,    Charlie    Farrell. 

Teiser:  Charlie    Farrell    is    the    fellow   in   the    foreground, 

with   the   moustache.      Did    he   go    to   work   with    the 

* 
See    also   p.    77 . 


105 

Teiser:     Traungs  after  they  established  their  own  com 
pany,  or  did  he  stay  at  Schmidt? 

Diedrichs:   He  was  an  apprentice. 

Teiser:     He  stayed  at  Schmidt? 

Diedri  chs :   Yes . 

Teiser:     Thirty-seven. 

Diedrichs:   These  are  cylinder  presses.   Embossing  department 
Here's  Mr.  Rahsskopff  again. 

Teiser:     Little  cap  and  goatee. 

Diedrichs:   Can't  miss  him.   This  fellow  here 

Teiser:     Third  from  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   He  was  deaf  and  dumb.   He  used  to  work  in  the 

embossing  department.  He  used  to  feed  one  of  the 
embossing  machines  and  later  on  became  a  pressman 
on  an  embossing  machine. 

Teiser:     Thirty-eight.   Embossing  department  again. 

Diedrichs:   These  are  platen  presses.   Mostly  all  embossing. 

Teiser:     Thirty-nine. 

Diedrichs:   Now  here  is  the  electrical  department.   Here  is 
Max  Schmidt,  Ben  '  s*brother. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   He  had  charge  of  the  electric  room,  at  that  time. 

Tieser:     He  was  a  good-looking  fellow,  wasn't  he? 

f 
Max  A.  Schmidt,  brother  of  Bernhard  H.  Schmidt. 


106 

Diedrichs:   He's  a  good-looking  man  yet,  and  he's  seventy- 
si  x  years  old. 
Teiser:     I  haven't  met  him.   Well,  you've  all  stood  up 

pretty  wel 1  . 

Diedrichs:   He's  in  wonderful  shape. 
Teiser:     Page  40. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  the  boiler  room.   That's  Mr.  Hancock, 

Bob  Hancock,  he  had  charge  of  the  boiler  room. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Page  41 . 
Diedrichs:   This  is  the  machine  shop.   Mr.  Rahsskopff. 

This  is  Joe  Wesphal  ,  and  this  is  Clarence  Beach. 
Teiser:     Let's  see,  Joe  Wesphal  is.  .  . 
Diedrichs:   Sitting  down  there. 
Teiser:     Fourth  from  the  left,  sitting. 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     And  Clarence  Beach  is.... 
Diedrichs:   Right  in  back  of  him. 
Teiser:     Back  and  to  the  right  of  him. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   They  both  became  foremen  of  that  department, 

in  later  years.   This  is  one  of  the  mechanics. 

His  name  was  Joe  Crowley.   I  remembered  his  name. 
Teiser:     Fourth  from  the  right. 

Paae  42. 


107 
Diedrichs:   Looking  west,  electrotyping .   That's  something 

like  the  picture  I  showed  you  before  [in  the  1903 

album].  They  used  to  do  their  own  electrotyping. 

Here's  the  foreman. 

Teiser:     To  the  far  right,  foreground. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   His  name  was  Ny  • 
Teiser:     Forty-three. 
Diedrichs:   Electrotyping  department  again.   This  is  Mr.  Ny 

again,  the  foreman. 
Teiser:     Third  from  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  in  the  center  there. 
Teiser:     He  looks  like  a  casual  sort. 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  it  was  a  dirty  job,  out  there. 
Teiser:     Forty-four. 
Diedrichs:   Paper  seasoning  department.   This  is  Bill  Lampe 

[pronounced  Lam'pee].   He  had  charge  of  the 

seasoning  of  paper.   Now,  see,  this  paper  is  all 

being  seasoned,  hung. 

Teiser:     Forty-five.   Box  making  and  carpentry  shop. 
Diedrichs:   As  I  say,  they  used  to  make  boxes  to  deliver 

labels  in.   They  made  the  boxes  up  there. 
Teiser:     Forty-six. 
Diedrichs:   Cutting  department.   This  fellow's  name  is 

Siebert.   I  was  trying  to  think  of  his  name  before 
Teiser:     With  a  little  bow  tie  on,  and  the  moustache. 


108 

Diedrichs:   Louis  Siebert.   He  was  the  foreman  of  that 

department.   He  later  committed  suicide.   He 
was  a  great  friend  of  the  old  man's. 

Teiser:     Forty-seven. 

Diedrichs:   Die-cutting  department.   This  is  Henry  Hageman 
again.   We  saw  him  on  the  other  pages. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  who  the  others  are. 

Teiser:     This  is  48. 

Diedrichs:   And  the  varnish  room  again.   Here's  Henry  Hageman 
again.   He  had  charge  of  that. 

Teiser:     To  the  left? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Here's  where  the  varnish  sheets  came  down 
here  and  up  here  and  through  all  this  dry  pro 
cessing. 

Teiser:     Oh,  an  oven. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   That's  in  later  years. 

Teiser:     I  see.  So  they  didn't  have  to  hang  them  on  those 
racks  any  move. 
Forty-nine. 

Diedrichs:   Looking  north,  corrugated  paper.   They  started  a 
corrugating  department  in  the  old  building,  that 
is  the  building  we  moved  into  after  the  fire. 
This  was  on  the  third  floor.   As  this  department 
developed,  it  was  moved  across  the  street  to 


109 

Diedrichs:   building  number  two,  like  you've  seen  —  the  new 
building  over  across  the  street.   Andy  Nelson 
had  charge  of  that,  the  man  who  had  his  arm 
taken  off  —  he  had  charge  of  the  department 
until  he  retired. 

Teiser:     Fifty.   Corrugated  paper  department.   That's  a 
cutter  in  the  center  there? 

Diedrichs:   It's  for  stamping  them  out,  you  know,  die  cutting. 
It's  a  die  cut . 

Teiser:     Is  that  a  gluing  machine  to  the  left? 

Diedrichs:   That's  what  it  looks  like,  yes.   And  John  Munson. 

Teiser:     Here's  page  51. 

Diedrichs:   Northside,  corrugated  paper  department.   This  is 
the  corrugated  paper  machine.   They  used  to  run 
the  paper  through  there  and  corrugate  it,  and  glue 
it. 

Teiser:     Did  the  same  machine  both  corrugate  and  glue? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   The  paper  would  go  through  and  it  would  be 
corrugated  and  glued  at  the  same  time. 

Teiser:     Now  I'll  ask  you  about  these  if  I  may.   I  don't 
think  I  showed  you  this  one.   I'll  read  the 
numbers  on  them.  This  is  number  52.   This  is  just 
for  our  record  keeping,  so  this  will  be  keyed  to 
them.   Do  you  recognize  when  this  was,  or  what  the 
occasion  was? 


Separate  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  photographs. 


no 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  this  was  at  the  time  of  the  war,  in  1945 
or  whatever  i  t  was . 

Teiser:     Or  '18,  1918,  do  you  think? 

Diedrichs:   They  were  wearing  those  dresses  to  protect  them 
selves  around  the  presses.   She  was  a  press 
feeder,  and  they  couldn't  wear  skirts. 

Teiser:     Oh,  is  that  right? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   This  is  the  main  pressroom,  the  aisle. 
Here's  the  skylight  I  was  telling  you  about. 
That's  the  middle  aisle  of  the  pressroom.   They 
were  taking  donations  for  the  benefit  of  the  war 
at  that  time.   And  I  can  tell  you  pretty  near 
everyone  in  the  picture. 

Teiser:     Who's  the  woman  in  the  center  there? 

Diedrichs:   I  know  her,  but  I  don't  know  her  name.   The 
gentleman  that's  here  is  Vic  Olsen. 

Teiser:     The  man  standing  out  in  front? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   That's  myself  right  here. 

Teiser:     Oh,  you're  right  under  that  sheaf  of  light. 

Diedrichs:   You  see,  the  light  is  going  right  through. 

Teiser:  Yes.  You  have  your  sleeves  rolled  up.  And  you 
have  on  overalls  over  your  shirt.  It  must  have 
been  the  First  World  War. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   This  is  Joe  WesDhal.   He  was 
foreman  of  the  machine  shop. 


Ill 

Teiser:     He's  with  the  hat  on,  just  to  your  left. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   Here's  George  Simonsen.   He  was  a  press 
man  down  there. 

Teiser:     He's  to  the  left  of  him. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  Frank  Schmidt. 

Teiser:     That's  the  bald  fellow,  second  from  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   He  was  a  pressman  down  there. 
Teiser:     He  was  the  Schmidt  who  was  no  relation? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   I  know  all  these  fellows.   That's 

Dick  Heinrich.   He  was  a  transferer. 
Teiser:     Oh  yes,  the  fellow  all  the  way  to  the  left 

edge.   Who's  the  fellow  with  the  eyeshade  on  in 

the  center? 

Diedrichs:   Possnecke  his  name  was.   [Poss-necR-ee] 
Teiser:     And  this  was  a  rally  to  raise  money,  was  it? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   And  this  bald-headed  man,  I  think 

his  name  was  Louderdale.   He  was  foreman  of  the 

job  department. 

Teiser:     He's  right  behind  Mr.  Olsen's  hand. 
Diedrichs:   This  fellow  up  here  is  Arty  Hartman.   He  was  a 

type  pressman.   With  the  overalls. 
Teiser:     Just  to  the  right  of  this  hanging  lamp,  the  lamp 

hanging  against  a  post. 
Diedrichs:   This  fellow  here  with  the  hat  on  is  Bergk,  Billy 

Bergk.   He  was  a  pressman. 


112 

Teiser:     Just  below  Hartman. 
Diedrichs:   Next  to  him  is  Joe  Reyes. 

Teiser:     To  his  right,  with  the  shirt  sleeves  rolled  up. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   This  is  Dick  Bailey. 
Teiser:     To  the  right  of  Joe  Reyes. 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   And  just  looking  over  his  head  is 

Fred  Muriset.    He  was  a  pressman.   This  boy 

worked  for  me  but  I  can't  think  of  his  name-- 

oh,  Bolls,  that's  right. 
Teiser:     Where  is  he? 
Diedrichs:   Next  to  Mr.  Muriset. 
Teiser:     I  see,  to  the  right  of  Mr.  Muriset. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   Next  to  him  is  Mr.  Winberg. 
Teiser:     To  the  right  of  him. 

Diedrichs:   He  later  became  foreman  of  the  department. 
Teiser:     Of  the  pressroom? 

Diedrichs:   Of  the  printing  pressroom.   This  is  Jack  Barnes. 
Teiser:     Next  to  him,  to  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   He  ran  the  embossing  department  at  that  time. 

Next  is  John  Munson. 

Teiser:     You  can  just  hardly  see  him  over  somebody. 
Diedrichs:   That's  right.   This  is  George  Hart. 
Teiser:     Second  from  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   You  can  see  him  looking  up.   He  was  a  pressman. 

Right  in  front  of  him  was  Mr.  Ben  Schmidt.   In  the 

vest. 


113 

Teiser:     In  the  vest  and  striped  shirt. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   And  this  fellow  with  the  shade 

on  is  Mr.  Iken.   You  know  we  spoke  of  him  in  an 
other  picture. 

Teiser:     This  is  the  group  of  plant  pictures  that  I  told 
you  about.   I  have  numbered  them  all.   Here's 
112,  "Section  of  the  Artist  Department." 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     About  when  was  that? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  I  couldn't  tell  you  the  year.   Gee,  if  I 

only  had  time  to  think  of  some  of  these  I  could 
think  of  the  names.   That's  Max  Schmidt  here. 

Teiser:     Second  from  the  left.   Which  Max?   "German  Max"-- 
Max  Schmidt,  Jr.? 

Diedrichs:   German  Max,  yes.   This  is  Charlie  Lindecker,  the 
man  standing  up  there. 

Teiser:     Standing  next  to  the  desk,  in  the  right  half  of 
the  picture. 

And  here  is  "Battery  of  Harris  two-color  offset 
presses,"  112-B. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   Yes,  those  were  two-color  presses 
that  were  put  in--it  could  have  been  around  '20, 
somewhere  around  in  there,  yes.   There  were  three 
of  them  in  a  row  there,  I'm  pretty  sure. 

Teiser:     This  again  is  the  artist  department.   This  is 
number  110. 


114 
Diedrichs:   The  main  one  in  the  picture  is  Max  Schmidt,  Jr. 

agai  n . 
Teiser:     He's  to  the  right,  the  man  standing  to  the  right. 

And  here's  109,  which  is  the  litho  pressroom. 
Diedrichs:   I  couldn't  tell  you  the  exact  year.   But  I  can 

tell  you  some  of  the  men  in  the  picture. 
Teiser:     Fine. 
Diedrichs:   This  is  Vic  Olsen. 
Teiser:     On  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   The  next  one  is  Ben  Schmidt.   This  is  Arthur 

Evans . 

Teiser:     Next  to  him. 
Diedrichs:   He  was  a  pressman  at  that  time.   He  later  had  a 

business  of  his  own. 
Teiser:     What  are  these  presses? 
Diedrichs:   All  Harris. 
Teiser:     Number  108.   I  don't  know  if  there's  much  to  be 

said  about  the  carton  gluing  machines. 
Diedrichs:   Well,  that's  in  the  box  department. 
Teiser:     Are  these  cartons,  these  in  the  foreground  to  the 

right,  on  the  table? 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     That's  what  they  were  working  on? 
Diedrichs:   You  see,  they're  all  cut  out.   They're  die-cut, 

and  then  they're  folded  and  glued.   They  go 

through  a  folding  machine,  and  are  glued. 


115 

Telser:     Would  they  use  that  many  people  in  that  department 
today? 

Diedrichs:   Oh  yes.   It  all  depends  on  the  size  of  the  plant. 
I  guess  they  did  the  largest  raisin  carton  busi 
ness  on  the  coast  here  for  a  good  many  years. 
And  here's  the  foreman  again,  Mr.  Pierce. 

Teiser:     Oh,  with  the  great  moustache  and  the  cap? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     Second  from  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     Let's  see.   I'm  leafing  through  some  of  these 

that  Mr.  Ben  Schmidt  has  identified  pretty  thor 
oughly.   This  is  a  fascinating  little  picture. 
This  is  74--of  apparently  Max  Schmidt's  original 
press,  Max  Senior's. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   It's  an  old-style  hand  press. 

Teiser:     Was  it  ever  intended  for  production? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  yes,  production  at  that  time—one  impression 
at  a  time. 

Teiser:     How  big  a  sheet  would  that  handle?   I  can't  tell 
the  scale. 

Diedrichs:   That's  only  a  22-inch  sheet.   That's  all. 

Teiser:     Here's  a  pressroom  one,  71.  "Second  lithographing 
pressroom. .  .Thi s  company  does  a  large  proportion 
of  seed  bags  . " 


116 

Diedrichs:   Those  were  all  seed  bags.   I  was  telling  you 

about  the  Schonings.   When  the  company  brought 
over  the  Galloway  Lithograph  Company,  they  came 
over  and  set  up  their  presses  on  the  third 
floor  over  there  in  the  new  building,  the  one 
across  the  street. 

Teiser:     Yes.   And  this  is  their  pressroom? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     The  one  that  the  Schonings  ran? 

Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     What  presses  were  those? 

Diedrichs:   Those  were  Harris  single-color  presses.   Later  on 
we  had  two  or  three  four-color  presses  over  there, 
after  I  got  to  be  superintendent.   Why  I  had 
charge  of  that  department  after  that.   All  but  the 
seed  bag.   Herbert  Schoning  ran  the  seed  bag 
department. 

Teiser:     Here's  picture  70. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  the  new  press  that  they  installed  down 
at.  .  .  just  before  I  left,  a  year  or  so  before 
I  left.  That's  a  new  two-color  press.   This  is 
Max  Schmidt,  Jr. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Beside  him  is  Morton  Schmidt.   And  this  is  Carl 
Schmidt.   And  I  know  this  gentleman's  name,  but 


117 

Diedrichs:   I  can't  think  of  it  right  now.   And  that's 
mysel f . 

Teiser:     That's  what  I  thought.   This  is  from  left  to 
right.   This  was  on  the  installation  of  a 
new  two-color,  was  that  it? 

Diedrichs:   I  believe  it  was. 

Teiser:     Maybe  the  man  standing  up  on  top  there  was  some 
body  who  represented  the  press  company? 

Diedrichs:   He  was  with  the  Harris  Company,  es .   The  gentle 
man's  name  was  Mr.  Willis,  I  think.   He's  standing 
on  the  platform. 

Teiser:     Here's  picture  number  57.   Is  that  the  same  press? 

Diedrichs:   I'm  pretty  sure  it  is.   At  any  rate,  it's  a  two- 
color  offset  press.   Here's  the  assistant.   The 
feeder  is  Mike  Maloney,  up  here. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Standing  up.   And  this  is  a  Harris  mechanic. 
I  can't  think  of  his  name  now. 

Teiser:     To  the  right  of  him. 

Diedrichs:   And  this  is  Urvan  Pack.      He  was  tne  pressman. 

Teiser:     To  the  right  side.   Let  me  ask  you  what  this  is... 
numbered  103. 

Diedrichs:   From  what  I  hear—this  is  a  picture  of  Main  Street, 
the  shop  down  on  Main  Street.   Here's  all  the 
presses,  and  they  had  a  balcony  going  around  in 
the  storeroom. 


118 

Telser:     This  was  before  you  knew  the  company? 
Diedrichs:   Before  the  fire,  and  before  I  went  with  the 

company,  down  on  Main  Street.   They  are  all 

stone  presses. 

Teiser:     And  this  one,  92,  this  looks  like  a  later  one. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   This  is  the  present  pressroom,  right  now. 
Teiser:     In  the  main  building  or  the  new  building? 
Diedrichs:   In  the  main  building,  not  the  new  building. 

And  this  is  a  Harris  press  with  a  bronzer  attached 
Teiser:     This  is  in  the  left  part  of  the  picture. 
Diedrichs:   The  sheets  going  here  through  the  bronzer,  there. 

This  is  the  bronzer. 

Teiser:     The  bronzer  is  off  to  the  left  edge. 
Diedrichs:   The  pressman  is  standing  on  top.   His  name  is 

Clarence  Hughes.   And  this  is  the  foreman  at 

the  time,  Vic  Olsen,  standing  there. 
Teiser:     Standing  to  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   Right  in  back  of  that  is  another  Harris  press 

with  the  bronzer  attached.   Those  two  presses 

are  on  the  main  aisle  down  there. 
Teiser:     I  see.   That's  the  press  to  the  right  of  the 

picture. 

This  is  picture  72.   It's  dated  1920. 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  I  know  all  these  fellows.   That's  Ed  Ander 
son;  he's  a  pressman. 


119 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Next  to  him  is   ...  I  forget  his  first  name, 
but  his  name  is  Bowles.   Next  to  him  is  Fat 
Millard.   And  next  to  him  is  Ed  Pierce,  Jr.,  son 
of  the  foreman  of  the  box  department. 

Teiser:     What  is  that,  a  two-color? 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   Sitting  up  there  on  the  two-color  press. 
Ed  Anderson  ran  the  press. 

Teiser:     This  is  75,  the  ink-making  department.   That's 
a  fairly  recent  one  too,  I  guess. 

Diedrichs:   Yes,  it  is.   This  is  after  the  ink  department  was 
pretty  well  established.   That's  just  a  section 
of  the  ink  department. 

Teiser:     What  are  those  machines  running  down  the  aisle? 

Diedrichs:   Those  were  where  they  grind  the  ink.   As  I  told 
you,  they  used  to  buy  the  powders  and  varnishes, 
say,  yellow,  or  red,  or  dark  blue,  or  whatever  it 
was.   They  had  a  mixing  machine  where  they  mixed 
the  powder  and  the  varnish  together  in  these 
tubs.   Then  they'd  have  to  run  it  through  this 
ink  mill.   They  had  three  or  four  of  them,  and 
there  were  more  in  the  other  part.   And  this  1s 
the  foreman  I  was  speaking  to  you  about. 

Teiser:     He's  the  man  in  the  white  shirt  and  the  overalls. 

Diedrichs:   Under  the  lamp. 


120 
Telser:     Standing  against  the  lighted  lamp,  against  a 

pillar.   What  did  the  finished  ink  come  out  in? 

This  sort  of  tub? 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  they  put  a  tub.   Here  he's  taking  out  the 

mixed  powder.   It's  like  a  lot  of  dough. 
Teiser:     This  is  the  man  in  the  center. 
Diedrichs:   He  puts  it  in  here  and  it  goes  between  rollers 

that  squeeze  it.   They  run  it  through  this  ink 

mill,  sometimes  twice.   It  comes  out  in  the  tub 

back  here.   It's  all  in  ink  form. 
Teiser:     Are  these  tubs  to  the  lower  left?   Is  that  the 

kind  of  tub  it  would  come  out  in? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     They  had  handles  for  carrying  them  around. 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     How  were  they  transported  around  the  plant? 
Diedrichs:   On  little  dollies.   There's  one  of  them  right  here. 
Teiser:     Oh,  I  see,  to  the  left  center. 
Diedrichs:   Just  lift  them  up  on  that  and  roll  them  around. 
Teiser:     Oh,  yes,  four  wheels  on  them.   Back  here  is  a 

little  higher  one. 
Diedrichs:   They  used  to  put  these  tubs  on  top  of  that  dolly 

to  make  it  handy  to  feed  the  ink  mill. 
Teiser:     This  is  picture  76.   Let  me  ask  you  about  this. 

This  must  have  been  one  of  the  many  celebrations. 

What  was  the  event? 


121 

Diedrichs:   I  have  no  idea.   I  can't  think  of  that  now. 

That's  all  up  in  the  office.   I  wouldn't  know 
offhand  just  what  that's  all  about. 

Teiser:     There  were  a  good  many  festivities  were  there, 
at  Schmidt  Lithograph? 

Diedrichs:   A  picnic  every  year.   We  had  what  they  called  a 
Social  Society.   It  explained  in  that  book* 
what  the  Social  Society  was.   It  went  on  to  tell 
you  what  benefits  they  gave  us. 

Teiser:     The  people  who  belonged  to  the  society  paid  a 
little  dues? 

Diedrichs:   They  paid  $.75  and  the  firm  paid  $.75.  We  used 
to  get  sick  benefits  and  doctor  care. 

Teiser:     Doctor  care! 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   The  working  members  in  the  plant-- 
those  are  the  people  that  got  sick  benefits  and 
doctor  care.   But  office  help  belonged  to  the 
Social  Society,  but  just  as  social  members.   I 
believe  they  got  doctor  care,  but  no  sick  benefits 

Teiser:     This  was  not  written  into  your  union  contract  the 
way  i  t  i  s  now,  was  i  t? 

Diedrichs:   Oh  no. 

Teiser:     This  was  a  company.  .  . 

Diedrichs:   Company  affair. 

* 
Dedication  of  Plant  No.  Two. 


122 

Teiser:     Did  you  get  good  doctor  care? 

Diedrichs:   Had  a  steady  doctor. 

Teiser:     Was  there  a  company  doctor? 

Diedrichs:   Company  doctor.   Dr.  Olsen  his  name  was.   He  was 
the  son  of  a  foreman  down  there,  name  of  Vic 
Olsen.   He  started  to  work  down  in  the  shop  as 
a  boy  down  there  and  went  to  Cal ;  became  a  doctor 

Teiser:     Did  he  keep  hours  in  the  plant? 

Diedrichs:   No.   He  had  an  office.   But  everyone  in  the 

Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  went  to  see  Dr.  Olsen 
when  anything  was  wrong  with  him,  and  really  got 
Dr.  Olsen  started  in  his  business.   They'd  tell 
their  friends  about  Dr.  Olsen,  and  built  up  his 
clientele.   He's  still  in  business. 

Teiser:     Do  you  still  go  to  him? 

Diedrichs:   No. 

Teiser:     Suppose  you  got  in  the  hospital.   Did  it  pay 
your  hospital  costs? 

Diedrichs:   I  think  you  got  sick  benefits  for  a  certain 
length  of  time. 

Teiser:     In  lieu  of  your  salary? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   You'd  get  so  much  a  week  for  the 
length  of  time  you  were  off,  and  that  lasted  so 
many  weeks  or  so  many  months.   It's  so  far  away, 
I  don't  remember. 


123 

Teiser:  This    is    the   sort   of   thing   the   unions    later 

demanded,    isn't    it? 

Diedrichs:      That's    right.      We    had    that    all    prior   to    that. 

Teiser:  When   you    got    to    the    supervisory    level,    did   you 

still    have    those    benefits? 

Diedrichs:      While  you   were    in   the   factory. 

Teiser:  Anyone   who   was    in   production? 

Diedrichs:      That's    right. 

Teiser:  There   were    a    lot   of   pictures   of   parties,    in 

which   there   apparently  were   elaborate    decorations 
and   signs    and   everything.      Were   those   just   for 
the   men? 

Diedrichs:      No,    the   whole    plant.      You'd    sign    up    if  you   wanted 
to   go.      They'd   have   them   in    the   cafeteria,    or 
once   a  year   they'd   have   a   big   event    in    the   big 
Native   Sons'    Hall,    or   something    like   that,    big 
affair,    dancing    and   all. 

Teiser:  Who   paid   for    that? 

Diedrichs:      Well,    I    can't    remember  how   that   was    taken    care   of 
The   Social    Society   paid   for  most   of   it.      Some 
times    the   plant  would   go   in. 

Teiser:  There   were   some   pictures    that    looked   as    if   they 

were    stags. 

Diedrichs:      That   was    all    salesmen's    conventions    every   year. 

They'd    call    all    the    salesmen    in    from   all    the   out 
lying   offices,    all    through    the   East   and   Honolulu. 


124 
Diedrichs:   They'd  be  here  for  maybe  a  week,  two  weeks,  hold 

their  meetings  in  the  afternoon  and  they'd  go 

out  to  dinner  at  night.   Whole  bunch  of  salesman. 

The  company  took  care  of  the  tab. 
Teiser:     Did  any  of  the  men  from  the  plant  go  with  them? 

Were  you  involved  in  that,  for  instance. 
Diedrichs:   Well,  the  salesmen  had  their  regular  dinners  after 

their  meetings.   Then  they'd  have  a  big  dinner  for 

the  salesmen  and  the  men  from  the  plant  —  the  heads 

of  the  departments  were  asked.   They  must  have  a 

lot  of  pictures  of  that. 

Teiser:     This  is  113.   This  must  have  been  World  War  I. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   We  all  had  to  wear  masks  there  at  that  time. 
Teiser:     Did  you  wear  them  to  work  in? 
Diedrichs:   Absolutely. 
Teiser:     What  were  these  people  doing?  They're  making 

masks,  maybe.  .  .  sewing  them? 
Diedrichs:   They  could  be  sewing  them.   You  were  compelled  to 

wear  masks  all  the  time.   This  is  Ben  Schmidt  here 
Teiser:     Standing  up,  to  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   That's  right,  that's  Ben. 
Teiser:     This  is  January  12,  1925.   This  is  number  114.   I 

wanted  to  ask  you  to  identify  people  in  it,  but 

is  this  one  of  the  dinners  you  were  speaking  of? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right,  that's  one  of  the  dinners;  you  see, 

they  all  got  their  names  on  all  the  cards. 


125 

Teiser:  These    are    salesmen    and   supervisory   personnel? 

Diedrichs:      That's    right.      Men    from   the   pressroom   and    from 

the    transfer   room,    from   the   shipping    room,    the 

cutting    room   and    the    varnish    room,    carpenter   shop 
Teiser:  Where   do  you   think   this   was    held? 

Diedrichs:      Let's    see.    .    .      It   was    a    very   prominent    place 

at   that   time.      There's   my   picture    right   there. 
Teiser:  Oh,    there   you    are.      Let's    see.      You're    behind 

Jack  . 

Diedrichs:      That's    Jack    Barnes.        That's    Bill    Bray,    the    fore 
man    of   the    bindery.      This   was    Metzger. 
Teiser:  Adrien   Metzger. 

Diedrichs:      That's    right.      This    is   Joe  Wesphal  ,      foreman   of 

the   machine    shop.      There's    Louis    Brune. 
Teiser:  He   has    on    a   stiff   collar   and  you    can   just   see 

the  "L"  on  his  badge. 
Diedrichs:  He  was  in  the  office. 
Teiser:  Who  was  Charlie,  here? 

Diedrichs:      Charlie   Bowen,    he   was    a    salesman. 
Teiser:  This    is    the   Charlie   to   the    left.      There's    another 

Charlie   over  here   just   to   the    right   center.      Who 

was    he? 
Diedrichs:      He   was    an   outside   salesman.      I   wouldn't    know   him. 

There's    Ben    Schmidt   back    there. 


126 
Teiser:     Oh,  I  see.   He  has  "Ben"  on  his  tag.  He  has 

glasses.   Your  badge  is  hidden  there,  isn't  it? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     Is  this  Max  Schmidt  at  the  head  of  the  table? 
Diedrichs:   Just  a  minute.   That's  Richard  Schmidt.   Max 

Schmidt  is  right  over  there.   Can  you  see  him 

there? 
Teiser:     Oh,  yes.   He's  third  to  the  left  of  Richard 

Schmidt. 

Here  is  an  October  1920  "house  warming."   This 

is  picture  number  115. 
Diedrichs:   This  was  taken  in  the  building,  upstairs  in  the 

cafeteria,  on  the  fifth  floor. 
Teiser:     What  were  they  warming? 
Diedrichs:   I  can't  just  think  of  the  occasion.   Just  another 

of  those  parties. 

Teiser:     The  fellow  with  the  white  goatee? 
Diedrichs:   That's  Mr.  Rahsskopff. 
Teiser:     The  first  time  I've  seen  him  without  a  cap  on. 

He's  the  first  man  on  the  left,  with  a  white 

goatee  and  moustache.   Next  to  him  is  a  lady. 

Who  is  she,  Mrs.  Max? 
Diedrichs:   No,  I  don't  believe  so.   I  couldn't  say  who  it  is. 

I'm  not  sure;  I  wouldn't  want  to  say. 
Teiser:     Who  is  the  gentleman  whose  arm  she  has  her  hand  on? 


127 


D  i  e  d  r  i  c  h  s  : 

Tei  ser: 
Diedrichs : 
Tei  ser: 
Diedrichs  : 

Teiser: 
Diedrichs : 

Teiser: 
Diedrichs: 
Tei  ser: 
Diedrichs : 

Tei  ser: 

Diedri  chs  : 
Teiser: 
Diedrichs  : 

Tei  ser: 
Diedrichs: 


That's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt.   There's  Mr.  Richard 
over  here  again. 
Wi  th  a  whi  te  ribbon  on  . 
That's  right. 

And  this  must  be  a  bust  of  Mr.  Max  Schmidt. 
That's  right.   I  could  tell  you  a  couple  more. 
This  is  Mr.  Lindecker,  in  back  of  Mr.  Richard. 
Just  behind,  with  a  big,  stiff  white  color  on. 
That's  right.   He  had  charge  of  the  art  depart 
ment. 

This  is  number  116. 
That  was  a  salesmen's  party. 
January  1930. 

You  see,  they  were  all  men  there.   I  can  identify 
some  of  them  if  you'd  like  to  know  some  of  them. 
Yes.   The  man  with  the  goatee  here  and  the 
glasses,  holding  a  glass. 
That's  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt. 
He's  three  to  the  left  of  the  center  pillar. 
Yes.   And  the  man  with  his  head  almost  next  to 
him  is  Bill  Reed.   He  was  a  pressman. 
The  man  looking  down,  just  to  the  left  of 
Richard  Schmidt? 

Yes.   Then  to  the  left  of  him,  again,  is  Mr. 
Richard  Schmidt,  Max  Schmidt  Senior's  son. 


128 
Teiser:     Which  one?  This  one?  The  one  with  his  head 

way  down,  kind  of  bald  on  top? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   And  here's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt,  Sr. 
Teiser:     Just  to  the  right  of  the  pillar,  yes. 
Diedrichs:   And  this  gentleman  here  is  Bill  Bookey. 
Teiser:     [In  the  center]   Shaking  something.   What's  he 

shaking? 
Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  what  he's  doing. 

Here's  Carl  Schmidt. 

Teiser:     He's  four  from  the  right  end. 
Diedrichs:   I  am  right  here. 
Teiser:     Oh,  there  you  are.   There's  not  much  of  you 

showi  ng. 
Diedrichs:   I'm  right  behind  the  big  fat  guy,  the  top  of  his 

head.   I'm  looking  over  his  head,  almost. 
Teiser:     Where  was  this  held? 
Diedrichs:   This  was  held  down  in  the  shop  on  the  fifth  floor 

They  had  a  special  bar  made  up  there  just  for  the 

occasion.   There's  a  big  bar  there;  you  can't 

see  it. 
Teiser:     There's  another.   This  is  117.   What  in  the  world 

was  that  event,  in  which  someone  was  queen  of 

somethi  ng? 

Diedrichs:   They  crowned  a  queen  that  time. 
Teiser:     The  queen  of  what? 


129 
Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  whether  it  was  the  Social  Society 

or  some  similar  event.   It  was  in  Native  Sons' 

Hall,  I  believe.  Yes,  Native  Sons'  Hall. 
Teiser:  Who  was  the  queen?  Do  you  recognize  her? 
Diedrichs:  Yes,  I  know  her.  In  fact,  I  believe  she's  down 

there  yet.   Louise  Something.   I  can't  think  of 

her  last  name.   That  stuck  to  her  for  all  these 

years.   They  still  talk  about  the  queen. 
Teiser:     Oh,  is  that  right?   [Laughter] 
Diedrichs:   Yes,  the  queen.    You  can  see  some  mob  there, 

can't  you.   There's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt  there. 
Teiser:     With  the  paper  hat  on? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 
Teiser:      [Laughter]   In  profile,  with  his  arm  on  a  man's 

shoulder.   And  this  is  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt, 

isn't  it? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     To  the  right  of  the  queen,  in  three-quarter  view. 
Diedrichs:   There  were  picnics  every  year. 
Teiser:     Where  were  the  picnics  held? 
Diedrichs:   For  a  while,  the  first  ones  were  held  over  in 

Alameda.   What  was  that  park  over  there? 
Teiser:     Neptune  Beach? 
Diedrichs:   Neptune  Beach.   They  had  several  over  there.   Then 

they  used  to  go  down  to  Mission  San  Jose.   Do  you 


130 

Diedrichs:   know  that  park  down  there? 
Tei  ser :     No,  I  don ' t . 
Diedri  chs :   [Cal Is]  Mom! 
Mrs.  D.:     What? 
Diedrichs:   What's  that  park  down  at  Mission  San  Jose  we  used 

to  have  our  picnics  at? 

Mrs.  D.:     It  could  have  been  called  Warm  Springs. 
Diedrichs:   Do  you  remember  this  picture?   [Number  117] 

Remember, that  was  up  1n  Native  Sons'  Hall? 
Mrs.  D.:    Yes.   We  sat  up  there,  I  think,  up  in  the  balcony. 

Didn' t  we? 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 
Teiser:     Who  was  the  queen? 

Diedrichs:   Louise--!  don't  know  what  her  last  name  was. 
Mrs.  D.:    I  don't  know  her  last  name  either.   She  isn't  so 

young  today,  but  she  wasn't  a  bad  looking  girl. 
Teiser:     This  is  119.   That's  that  bar  you  were  mentioning, 

isn't  it?   [In  connection  with  photograph  number 

116]. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   There's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     In  the  dark  suit,  third  from  left. 
Diedrichs:   Here's  Herb  Cardozo. 
Teiser:     Fifth  from  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   Next  to  him  is  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt  [sixth  from 

the  left].   And  he's  a  salesman;  I  can't  think  of 


131 

Diedrichs:   his  name.   There's  Jack  Barnes  and  John  Munson. 
Teiser:     In  the  foreground,  to  the  right. 
Diedrichs:   They  were  the  guys  that  were  part  of  the  Social 

Society. 
Teiser:     Jack  Barnes  is  second  from  the  right,  and  Munson 

is  just  on  the  edge  there? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     This  is  number  120,  January  15,  1930. 
Diedrichs:   That  was  the  entrance  to  the  bar. 

Teiser:     My  word!   They  did  it  up  elaborately,  didn't  they? 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 

Teiser:     Here's  a  color  picture,  121.   Louis  Traung. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   That's  Louis,  all  right.   I  learned  the 

trade  under  Louis  Traung. 
Teiser:     He  was  always,  later,  a  good  friend  of  the  Schmidt 

Lithograph  Company? 

Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes,  they  were  very  friendly. 
Teiser:     Although  they  were  rivals  for  business? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  yes,  absolutely. 
Teiser:     Here  are  140,  141,  and  139.   Do  you  think  these 

are  at  one  of  the  picnics? 
Diedrichs:   Could  have  been.   Yes,  it  could  have  been  the 

races.   You  know,  they  had  races  and  everything. 

It  could  have  been  one  of  the  picnics.   See,  they're 

running  around  here.   That's  what  they  are,  the 


132 

Diedrlchs:   races  at  the  picnic. 

Teiser:     They  had  some  for  girls  and  some  for  men,  I 
guess . 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   Then  at  the  picnics  you  could 

invite  your  family  or  your  friends,  you  know,  pay 
a  little  extra  for  their  ticket.   But  they  had 
gate  prizes  just  for  the  employees.   They  had 
very  nice  gate  prizes.   Some  were  money,  and 
hams  and  bacon  and  all  that  stuff.   They  put  on 
a  big  time . 

Teiser:     This  is  138. 

Diedrichs:   That's  "Stew"  Norris. 

Teiser:     To  the  left. 

Diedrichs:   Here's  a  Harris  erector  [center].   I  can't  think 
of  his  name  now.   And  that's  myself  there, right. 
We  were  celebrating  something.   You  see,  we've 
all  got  a  glass  in  our  hands. 

Teiser:     Yes.   This  is  131.   Must  be  the  same  event. 

Diedrichs:   Carl  Schmidt  is  making  a  speech  there.   This  is 
Carl  Schmidt. 

Teiser:     To  the  right. 

Diedrichs:   This  is  Norris  again,  here. 

Teiser:     To  the  far  left,  lower  corner. 

Diedrichs:   Yes.   And  this  fellow  in  here  is  Morton  Schmidt, 
you  know. 


133 
Diedrichs:   You  can  just  see  his  head  there.   Yes,  these 

are  all  .  .  .1  believe  that  was  some  celebration 

in  the  pressroom. 
Teiser:     This  is  number  134.   I  expect  you  recognize 

these  people. 

Diedrichs:   That's  Ben  Schmidt  again,  here. 
Teiser:     To  the  left. 
Diedrichs:   And  this  is  a  Harris  salesman.   I  can't  think  of 

his  name.   And  myself. 

Teiser:     You're  naming  them  from  left  to  right. 
Diedrichs:   Over  on  the  end  is  Mike  Maloney. 
Teiser:     The  fellow  standing  at  the  right  end. 
Diedrichs:   I  can't  think  of  the  other  fellows'  names.   They 

all  worked  for  me,  but  I  can't  think  of  their 

names . 
Teiser:     Here's  one  that  goes  back  a  little  further.   It's 

number  147. 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   It's  taken  in  the  office.   Ben  could  tell 

you  more  about  it.   The  only  ones  I  know  in 

there  are  Carl  Schmidt  and  Mr.  Schoof. 
Teiser:     Carl  Schmidt  is  to  the  right  and  Mr.  Schoof  is 

standing  just  behind  him? 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 
Teiser:     This  is  149.   In  the  center  is  Mr.  Max  Schmidt. 

Do  you  recognize  either  of  the  other  men? 


134 
Mrs.  D.:    Do  you  want  to  see  a  couple  more  old  ones? 

[photographs] . 

Telser:     Oh,  you've  got  some.  .  . 
Mrs.  D.:    These  are  the  ones  in  the  pressroom.   There 

was  I.   There's  my  sister. 
Teiser:     What  beautiful  hats  you  have  on!   Are  you  in 

that,  or  just  your  wife  and  her  sister? 
Diedrichs:   My  wife  and  her  sister,  and.  .  .  no,  I'm  not  in 

it.   Those  were  all  girl   feeders  down  there. 

He  was  a  feeder  too.   He  was  a  feeder.   He  was 

a  feeder,  Bi 1 1  Brune . 
Teiser:     The  girls  were  a  little  outnumbered  —  a  few  more 

men  than  girls. 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     And  here's  another  of  your  pictures. 
Diedrichs:   That's  a  recent  one. 
Teiser:     Is  this  your  whole  pressroom  crew? 
Diedrichs:   Yes.   Here  I  am  on  the  end.   This  is  Bill  Doyle 

This  fellow's  name  is  Schubkagel .   Here's  Bob 

Schmid.   Every  one  of  these  fellows  was  in  the 

pressroom. 

Teiser:     And  here's  an  old  Chinese  fellow. 
Diedrichs:   Yes. 
Teiser:     What  was  he? 
Diedrichs:   He  used  to  work  on  the  bronze  machines. 


135 

Teiser:     That  late  they  continued  to  have  Chinese  on 
the  bronze  machines? 

Diedrichs:   Well,  they  had  the  Chinamen  that  take  care  of 
the  old  bronze,  they  sift  the  old  bronze.   On 
some  jobs  we'd  use  part  old  bronze  and  part  new. 
Some  of  the  jobs  wouldn't  take  a  brand  new  bronze 
because  the  condition  of  the  ink  wasn't  dry  enough, 
and  the  bronze  would  take  all  over  instead  of 
just  where  the  work  was.   So  when  you  put  old 
bronze  mixed  with  it,  it  didn't  have  that  effect. 

Teiser:     I  see. 

Mrs.  D.:    Here's  a  couple  other  ones.   This  was  1949.   And 
this  is  you.   February  15,  1949. 

Teiser:     This  was  a  luncheon  group. 

Mrs.  D.:    It  must  have  been  an  anniversary  or.  .  . 

Diedrichs:   It  was  a  party  for  somebody.   That's  right, 
somebody  retiring. 

Diedrichs:   There's  Mr.  Norris.   It  was  over  in  North  Beach. 

Mrs.  D.:    Tivoli  or  something? 

Diedrichs:   Bill  Doyle.   Bobby  Schmid.   Fat  Anderson.   My 
self. 

Teiser:     This  is  another  one  of  your  pictures.   You're 
looking  at  a  sheet  of  labels. 

Diedrichs:   Labels,  yes. 

Photographs  belonging  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Diedrichs. 


136 
Telser:     Let's  not  get  your  pictures  mixed  up.   I'll  put 

them  aside  and  go  back  to  these  I  have  with  me. 

This  is  150.   Must  be  another  one  of  those 

picni  cs . 
Diedrichs:   See,  it  was  a  race.   They  had  to  run  here  and 

put  something  in  the  box  there  and  run  back  with 

something.   That  was  how  that  worked. 

Teiser:     Here's  151.   Is  this  Mr.  Schoof  in  the  foreground? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right,  Mr.  Schoof.   His  son  worked  down 

there  too.   He  was  a  school  professor,  I  believe, 

at  one  time. 

Teiser:     What  did  he  do  in  the  company? 
Diedrichs:   Oh,  he  was  a  great  friend  of  the  old  man,  Max, 

and  had  a  job  down  there  in  the  office.   I  don't 

know  just  what  it  was. 
Teiser:     This  is  152. 
Diedrichs:   That  looks  like  Mr.  Iken. 
Teiser:     Who  was  he? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  an  engraver,  I  believe,  and  he  had  charge 

of  the  engraving  room  down  there. 
Teiser:     This  is  153  and  there's  a  memorandum  that  says 

"Here's  a  picture  of  the  Lustour  Plant  enlarged 

from  Otto  Schoning's  snapshot."  What's  that? 
Diedrichs:   I  don't  know  it.   There's  a  saying  there  [on  the 

memorandum]  that  old  man  Max  got  up:   "Write  it. 

Don't  say  'I  told  you  so. ' " 


137 
Diedrichs:   Whenever  you'd  make  an  excuse  about  anything, 

"Always  write  it  down  and  you  can't  go  wrong." 

"Don't  say  'I  told  you  so.'   Write  it." 
Teiser:     Whose  signature  is  that  on  that  memorandum? 
Diedrichs:   That's  Richard  Schmidt. 
Teiser:     Who's  G.  Taylor  on  the  list? 
Diedrichs:   George  Taylor;  he  was  treasurer  down  there  at 

one  time. 

Teiser:     And  what  was  Wuthman  Senior?  What  was  his  job? 
Diedrichs:   Toward  the  end  he  had  Mr.  Rahsskopff's  job. 

Before  that  he  had  charge  of  the  corrugated 

department  in  building  no.  2. 
Teiser:     What  did  Lorenz  Schmidt  do? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  head  of  the  salesmen.   He  later  became 

president. 

Teiser:     What  did  Verne  Bonetti  do? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  an  accountant  down  there.   Harry  Anderson, 

he  was  the  purchasing  agent. 
Teiser:     And  B.  Hammon? 
Diedrichs:   Hammon  was  an  accountant. 
Teiser:     P.  Crain? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  personnel. 
Teiser:     And  B.  Dixon? 
Diedrichs:   He  was  a  salesman? 
Teiser:     Guy  Street? 


138 

Diedrichs:   He  was  a  salesman. 

Telser:     I  thought  he  was  an  artist  too,  wasn't  he,  or 
a  designer  or  something? 

Diedrichs:   He  designed  too,  that's  right. 

Teiser:     B.  H.  Schmidt. 

Diedrichs:   Ben  Schmidt. 

Teiser:     N.  Hamilton? 

Diedrichs:   Norman  Hamilton,  he  worked  under  Ben  Schmidt. 

Teiser:     E.  Wuthmann,  Jr.   What  did  he  do? 

Diedrichs:   That  was  Senior's  son.   In  recent  years  he  took 
over  Max  Schmidt's  job,  after  Max  retired. 

Teiser:     In  the  factory  office? 

Diedrichs:   Head  of  the  plate  making  and  artists  and  all  that. 

Teiser:     The  job  that  Max  Schmidt  had  had  earlier? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right.   Ben  had  charge  of  the  factory 

office.   Max  had  charge  of  all  the  platemaking 
and  all  the  art  work.   He  okayed  color  sheets  for 
the  pressman.   In  general  he  was  .  .  . 

Teiser:     On  top  of  production? 

Diedrichs:   That's  right. 

Teiser:     R.  Duerson? 

Diedrichs:   Duerson,  he  was  a  salesman. 

Teiser:  .   S.  Norris.   What  did  Stewart  Norris  do? 

Diedrichs:   He  finally  took  over  Ben  Schmidt's  job.   He  worked 
under  Ben  Schmidt. 


Max  Schmidt,  Jr. 


139 

Teiser:     And  Dolly  somebody. 

Diedrichs:   Dolly,  Dolly,  Dolly--she  was  a  secretary. 
Teiser:     It  looks  like  "Ohls." 
Diedrichs:   She  was  Morton  Schmidt's  secretary. 
Teiser:     These  we've  gone  over  are  all  people  on  this 

1953  memo  attached  to  photograph  number  153. 
Diedrichs:   Any  memos  or  any  letters  or  anything  that  had  to 

go  around  the  plant,  they'd  check  off  the  ones 

who  were  to  see  it. 

Teiser:     Then  the  men  initialed  them  after  they'd  seen  it? 
Diedrichs:   That's  right. 


140 


Bernhard  H.  Schmidt,  referred  to  among  members 
of  the  Schmidt  family  and  firm  as  Ben,  was  born  in  1884  in 
San  Francisco.   The  son  of  Richard  Schmidt  and  the  nephew  of 
Max  Schmidt,  he  was  one  of  the  generation  that  he  referred 
to  in  his  interview  as  "the  juniors."   Following  graduation 
from  the  Lick  School  of  Mechanical  Arts,  he  went  to  sea 
briefly  before  going  to  work  at  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company  in  1905.   He  became  superintendent  first  of  the 
lithograph  department,  then  of  the  entire  plant.   His  title 
was  "factory  superintendent"  at  the  time  of  his  retirement 
in  1959. 

The  following  interview  was  given  at  the  San 
Anselmo  home  of  Bernhard  H.  Schmidt  on  May  25,  June  1,  and 
June  13,  1967.   Little  editing  was  done  by  the  interviewer, 
and  no  changes  but  a  few  name  additions  were  made  by  Mr. 
Schmi  dt . 


141 

BERNHARD  H.  SCHMIDT 

The  Family  and  the  Company 

Telser:        May  I  begin  by  asking  you  when  and  where  you 
were  born? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  I  was  born  on  March  14,  1884,  in  San  Fran 
cisco,  on  Sacramento  Street,  next  door  to  a 
Chinese  laundry. 

Teiser:        And  your  father  had  come.  .  .? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  He  came,  I  couldn't  say  when.   I  wouldn't  know. 
I  was  going  to  say  '79,  was  it?  He  was  Richard 
Schmidt,  Max  Schmidt's  brother.   Mr.  Max  had 
started  the  business  and  he  got  so  busy  he 
wanted  some  help,  so  he  got  my  father.   And 
later  on  he  got  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Rahss- 
kopff.   Have  you  ever  heard  of  Mr.  Rahsskopff? 

Teiser:        Mr.  Max  Schmidt,  Jr.,  mentioned  him. 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Carl  Rahsskopff.   He  was  a  mechanic  around  the 
factory  at  the  time.   Of  course,  I  didn't.  .  . 
well,  I  graduated  from  Lick  School  in  1905, 
and  I  went  to  sea  for  a  couple  of  months.   Then 
I  went  to  get  a  job  in  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company,  in  1905.   That  was  about  six  months, 
or  a  year  before  the  fire. 

Teiser:        What  was  your  first  job  there? 


142 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Shipping  department.   Then  the  fire  came, 

and  I  was  driving  a  truck  over  in  Oakland  for 
the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company.   We  moved 
there  and  stayed  there  for  two  years. 

Teiser:        You  lived  and  worked  there? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  No,  we  lived  in  San  Rafael,  but  commuted  back 
and  forth  to  Oakland  every  day. 

Teiser:        Was  a  plant  set  up  there,  a  manufacturing 
plant? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  There  was  the  Wempe  Brothers  paper  box  plant. 

* 
You'll  find  it  in  the  book  there.   We  bought 

that  out.   Wempe  stayed  on  one  floor,  and  we 

had  the  other  three. 
Teiser:        How  could  you  adapt  paper  box  machinery  to  use 

in  1 abel  printi  ng? 
B.H.  Schmidt:   We  had  the  paper  box  plant  before,  over  in  the 

city,  and  we  just  stayed  with  it. 
Teiser:        Did  you  do  some  label  printing  too,  there  in 

Oakland? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Oh  yes,  labels  and  paper  boxes,  called  cartons. 

We  finally  got  into  posters,  24  sheet  posters. 
Teiser:        In  Oakland? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  No,  wel 1 ... 

Teiser:        When  you  came  back  to  San  Francisco? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Yes.   In  the  meantime  we  had  built  the  plant 

i 

Elford,  Eddy,  The  Log  of  a  Cabin  Boy,  privately 
printed,  San  Francisco,  1922. 


143 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  at  Second  and  Bryant  Street,  rebuilt  it. 

The  one  that  was  dynamited  [at  the  time  of 
the  earthquake  and  fire]. 

Teiser:        Were  you  there  when  it  was  dynamited? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  I  was  the  last  man  out  of  the  factory.   You 
see,  they  dynamited  our  building  to  save  the 
St.  Mary's  Hospital,  which  was  a  wooden  build 
ing  two  blocks  below.   They  tried  to  save  that 
from  the  fire,  but  everything  went,  you  know. 

Teiser:        Were  you  able  to  get  anything  out  of  the 
building? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  No,  not  very  much.   We  didn't  know  where  to 
store  it. 

Teiser:        Did  you  get  papers  or  anything  of  the  sort? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Well,  I  think  they  got  the  office  papers,  but 
that's  about  all.   Nobody  came  to  work  that 
morning  except  my  father  and  my  uncle.   They 
stayed  there  and  ate  my  lunch.   Then  they  went 
to  Mill  Valley.   My  father  went  to  San  Rafael; 
he  lived  in  San  Rafael.   I  stayed  out  right 
at  614  Sacramento  Street.   That's  where  I  was 
born.   Stayed  there  for  two  weeks  until  the 
fire  was  out.   Then  we  went  down  to  the  factory 
and  tried  to  dig  up  what  we  could. 

Teiser:        Could  you  recover  anything  from  the  ruins  of 
it? 


144 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Not  too  much,  no.   If  they  hadn't  dynamited 

we  might  have  saved  more. 
Teiser:        No  equipment? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  No.   No,  it  was  pretty  well  gutted. 
Teiser:        Were  you  there  when  they  dynamited? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  No,  we  were  told  to  get  out. 
Teiser:        You  didn't  stay  around  and  watch? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  No. 
Teiser:        It  must  have  been  a  terrible  blow  to  your  Uncle 

Max  and  your  father  too. 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Yes.   Terrible  blow  to  all  of  us.   Because  we 

were  all  interested  in  the  business,  you  know. 
Teiser:        May  I  ask  you  about  your  family?  Your 

brothers  are.  .  .  ? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Carl  Schmidt  and  Max  A.  Schmidt.   You  know, 

there  are  two  Max  Schmidts:   Max  A.,  my 

oldest  brother,  and  Max  H.  who  came  in  from 

Germany. 

Teiser:        Yes.   Max  H.  is  "German  Max?" 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  German  Max,  yes. 

Teiser:        Your  brother  Carl  is  younger  or  older  than  you? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  He's  two  years  older  than  I  am. 
Teiser:        I  see.   You're  the  youngest. 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Yes. 
Teiser:        Do  you  have  any  sisters? 


145 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  I  had  a  twin  sister,  but  she  didn't  live 

very  long. 
Teiser:        I  see.   Then  Max  Schmidt  Senior's  children 

were .  .  .  ? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  Richard  Schmidt  and  Mathilda  Schmidt,  Wuthmann 

now.   He  had  one  more,  Emile  Schmidt,  but  he 

was  mentally  wrong  and  didn't  live  very  long. 
Teiser:        And  then  German  Max? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  He  was  adopted  by  my  uncle. 
Teiser:        I  see.   Let  me  go  over  these  same  people  and 

ask  you  what  their  functions  in  the  business 

were.   Your  older  brother,  Max? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  My  older  brother  Max  was  an  electrician  and 

mechanical  superintendent  of  the  plant. 

Brother  Carl  was  in  the  sales  end  of  it.   He 

was  sales  manager  and  was  president  of  the 

company  for  a  while. 
Teiser:        Then  your  cousin  Max? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  He  went  in  as  a  ...  oh,  sort  of  in  the  art 

department,  and  in  what  we  call  the  transfer 

department,  and  that  end  of  the  business, 

making  plates  for  the  presses. 
Teiser:        And  your  cousin  Richard? 
B.  H.  Schmidt:  He  was  the  secretary  of  the  company  for  years. 

Then  he  was  vice-president,  and  president, 


146 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  before  my  brother  was  president. 

Teiser:        And  then  Mr.  Wuthmann  was.  .  .? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  He  married  Mathilda  Schmidt. 

Teiser:        And  he  was  an  official  of  the  company? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Yes.   I  think  he  was  a  director  when  he 

retired.   But  he  was  in  charge  of  the  cor 
rugated  department.   I  worked  in  that  for 
qui  te  a  whi 1e . 

Teiser:        I  see.   There  were  a  lot  of  you. 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Well,  there  were  five  Schmidts,  you  might 

say  [in  the  second  generation].   We  used  to 
meet  every  Monday  and  have  dinner  together, 
and  lunch  together  and  talk  business.   We  had 
our  own  cafeteria,  and  we  used  to  eat  there. 

Teiser:        Then  you  decided  business  matters  together 
there? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Yes. 

Teiser:        Who  had  the  last  word? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  That's  hard  to  say  among  Germans.   Oh,  I  don't 
know,  I  guess  Mr.  Richard  Schmidt,  Jr.  and 
Brother  Carl,  they  used  to  fight  it  out. 

Teiser:        When  Max  Schmidt,  Senior,  was  alive  did  he 
control  things  very  closely? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:  Yes,  he  did.   He  was  quite  an  executive. 

Teiser:        If  you  objected  to  something,  did  he  listen  to 
you? 


147 


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Tei  ser : 

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Teiser: 

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Teiser: 

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Oh,  yes,  yes.   He'd  have  his  arguments  and 
we'd  have  ours.   We  got  along  pretty  good 
though  . 

Did  he  ever  do  what  you  wanted  instead  of  what 
he  wanted? 

Well  ,  it's  hard  to  say. 

Can  you  explain  where  the  Mutual  Label  and 
Lithograph   Company  fits  into  the  picture? 
Let's  see.   There  was  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company.   They  consolidated  with  Di ckman-Jones 
and  H.  S.  Crocker.*  Well,  there  were  the 
three  companies,  and  they  called  it  the  Mutual 
Did  H.  S.  Crocker  merge  only  a  part  of  its 
business? 

Yes.  They  kept  their  stationery  business. 
Was  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company's  entire  print 
ing  plant  put  into  Mutual? 

It  was  the  same  company,  only  it  changed  its 
name .   That1 sail. 

I  see.  How  did  it  get  separated  then,  again? 
Oh,  I  couldn't  say.  I  don't  know.  They  dis 
solved  somehow  or  other.  They,  after  that, 


The  date  of  this  consolidation  is  given  as 
1899  in  Since  I856f  a  brief  chronology  of  the 
H.  S.  Crocker  Company  compiled  by  Frederick  E. 
Keast  and  privately  published  by  the  H.  S. 
Crocker  Company  in  1944. 


148 


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Tei  ser: 

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became  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company. 

Then  H.  S.  Crocker  went  into  its  own  printing 

and  1 i  thographi  ng? 

They  went  into  their  own  business  again. 

What  happened  to  Di ckman-Jones? 

It  dissolved;  it  disappeared. 

Was  Max  Schmidt  head  of  Mutual  Label  and 

Lithograph  Company? 

He  was  head  of  it  at  the  time,  yes. 

Who  represented  Crocker  in  the  organization? 

I  couldn't  say.   I  wasn't  in  on  that  top  stuff, 

I  was  working  in  shipping,  and  that  was  it. 

I  finally  got  into  the  plant  as  superintendent 

of  the  lithograph  department.   And  I  finally 

got  the  whole  business. 

You  were  superintendent  of  the  whole  plant? 

Yes.   Factory  superintendent  they  call  it. 

What  year  did  you  become  superintendent  of 

the  lithograph  department? 

Oh,  I  don't  know.   Maybe  ten  years  after  I 

started,  something  like  that. 

Then  when  did  you  become  superintendent  of  the 

whole  plant? 

That  was  sort  of  automatic.   There  was  no 

special  date  set  for  it.   I  just  worked  into 

it.   Nobody  wanted  it,  I  guess. 


Teiser: 

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149 

Somebody  must  have  thought  you  could  do  it. 
Well,  it  was  quite  interesting. 
It  must  have  been  a  great  responsibility. 
Yes.   You  had  to  be  on  the  job  all  the  time. 
Did  you  move  through  the  plant  constantly? 
I  walked  seven  miles  a  day.   I  had  one  of  these 
pocket  speedometers  and  I  figured  it  out  one 
time.   I  walked  about  seven  miles.   Up  and 
down,  over  and  across.   You  see,  we  had  two 
buildings,  with  a  connecting  bridge.   And  it 
kept  you  going . 

They  were  both  three-story  buildings? 
No,  the  other  one  was  a  four-story  building. 
At  that  time  we  bought  out  the  Galloway  Litho 
graph  Company  and  took  over  their  seed  bag 
division.   They  used  to  make  seed  bags,  you 
know. 

That  was  how  you  got  into  the  seed  bag 
business? 
Yes. 

The  block  on  which  the  company's  building  stood 
in  San  Francisco.  .  . 

It  was  a  residence  originally.   It  was  a 
private  residence.   Here  is  a  picture  of  it  in 
The  Log  of  a  Cabin  Boy. 


Following  page  22. 


Teiser: 


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Te1 ser : 

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150 

Oh  yes.   1899.   And  the  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company  building  was  built  in  1900,  on  the 
whole  block,  according  to  this. 
Yes. 

Where  was  the  seed  bag  company? 
They  were  on  Folsom  Street  at  the  time.   When 
we  bought  them  out  they  moved  Into  our  build 
ing,  across  the  street. 

Before  1899  there  was  another  location,  wasn't 
there? 
23  Main  Street. 


Lithography  and  Letterpress  Techniques 

Teiser:        During  your  years  in  production,  were  there 

many  changes  in  equipment? 

B.  H.  Schmidt:   No,  other  than  improvements  in  the  presses. 

We  bought  more  presses,  and  they  printed  more 
colors  at  one  time.   Years  ago  they  only  used 
to  print  two  colors  at  a  time.   Then  they  made 
it  three,  and  they  made  it  four,  made  it  five. 
I  guess  now  it's  maybe  six  colors  at  one  time, 
one  operation. 

Teiser:        Were  you  there  early  enough  to  get  into  stone 

1 i thography? 


B.  H.  Schmidt: 


Telser : 

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151 

Oh  yes,  yes.   We  had  that  before  we  had  what 
we  call  aluminum  presses,  that  had  aluminum 
plates.   Stones  were  the  first  thing,  litho 
graph  stones. 

About  when  did  you  get  out  of  the  stone  litho 
graphy  operation? 

Oh,  I  couldn't  say.   But  still  after  the  fire 
we  were  lithographing  from  stone. 
The  size  of  the  stones  was  limited,  was  it  not? 
Yes,  but  some  of  the  bigger  stones  were  28 
by  42. 
That  large! 

Yes.   But  not  too  many  of  them.   The  little  ones 
were  used  as  originals.   The  original  copy  was 
on  the  small  ones,  then  we  pulled  impressions 
off  of  that  and  made  it  onto  the  big  stones. 
It  was  repeated? 

Yes.   Like  letterheads.   There  were  always 
four  on  a  sheet. 

Did  you  use  them  for  labels  that  way? 
Yes.   Only  a  little  bit,  because  it  was  too 
slow  an  operation.   The  stone  presses  were 
very  slow,  they  had  to  come  back  and  forth, 
back  and  forth,  for  every  impression.   When  they 
got  the  other  presses,  the  rotary  presses,  it 
was  much  quicker. 


152 


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After  the  fire  you  ordered  all  new  equipment? 
We  had  to  replace  a  lot  of  it,  yes. 
Did  you  save  any  of  the  old  stone  presses? 
Well,  we  rebuilt  some,  yes. 
Were  the  aluminum  presses  offset  or  direct 
1 ithography? 

That  was  direct.   Offset  came  in  later.   Off 
set  means  to  print  from  one  plate  to  a  blanket, 
then  to  a  sheet. 

But  the  aluminum  presses  printed  directly? 
Yes. 

Is  the  image  raised  or  is  it  sunk? 
It's  etched  in. 

Then  there  were  big  changes,  really,  in  litho 
graphy. 

Well,  yes.   It  kept  improving.   Now  they  do 
a  lot  with  the  camera.   They  photograph  right 
on  the  plate.   No  more  hand  work. 
Was  there  much  letterpress  printing  in  the 
plant? 

We  had  our  own  department  for  letterpress 
printing.   We  printed  from  electrotypes.   In 
fact,  we  had  our  own  electrotype  department. 
We  made  our  own  electrotypes.   We  did  quite  a 
little  of  that  because  at  that  time  we  used  to 


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153 

print  Sano  labels  and  we  printed  the  Ligget 
and  Meyers  tobacco  wrapper.   We  had  to  deliver 
a  mi  1 1  ion  a  day . 
Was  that  for  cigarettes? 

Cigarette  package  wrappers , yes .   It  was  the 
old  Chesterfield  brand.   They  were  done  from 
a  letterpress. 

When  did  you  print  labels  by  lithography  and 
when  by  letterpress? 
Both  at  the  same  time. 
How  did  you  decide  which? 

It  all  depended.   Sano  labels  were  usually  a 
red  background  we  printed  from  type,  from 
electrotypes.   But,  then,  after  a  while  we  did 
lithographing  and  didn't  do  any  more  printing. 
You  did  some  commercial  work  too?  Some  general 
commercial  printing? 

A  little,  not  too  much.   Mostly  lithograph 
commercial  printing  on  a  lithograph  press. 
Your  letterpress  was  mainly,  in  the  days  before 
offset  lithography,  devoted  to  labels? 
Yes. 

What  kind  of  letterpresses  did  you  have? 
They  called  them  Miehle,  Miehle  presses.   We 
had  two-color  and  single-color,  one  color  and 
two  color. 


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154 

Did  you  run  those  labels  in  very  large  sheets? 
Yes,  they  ran  pretty  good  sheets.   Roughly 
about  44  by  64.   Good  sized  sheets. 
You  said  you  went  into  24-sheet  posters. 
About  when  was  that? 

Oh,  quite  a  while  ago.   I  don't  know  how  we 
got  into  that.   I  think  it  was  right  after  the 
fire.   We  used  to  make  what  you  called  one, 
two-sheet  posters,  and  finally  got  into  the 
big  boards  on  the  highway,  24-sheet  posters. 
You  see  them  all  around  now. 
What  did  they  use  to  transfer  the  image? 
A  camera,  a  reproducing  camera. 
What  kind  of  presses  were  the  posters  printed 
on? 

They  were  printed  on  these  aluminum  presses, 
as  they  call  them,  on  big  plates. 
Was  the  major  part  of  the  work  labels  though? 
The  major  part,  yes,  I'd  say  so.   Of  course, 
we  did  a  lot  of  cartons,  raisin  cartons,  things 
like  that. 
Little  boxes? 
Yes. 

Not  corrugated? 

Corrugated  too.   These  raisin  boxes,  they  were 
made  out  of  regular  cardboard,  24-point 


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155 

cardboard.   Regular  raisin  board  we  called  it. 
What  kind  of  presses  were  used  for  those? 
They  were  printed  on  lithograph  presses. 
Also  on  printing  presses.   Some  jobs  we  could 
put  either  way,  it  didn't  make  any  difference. 
What  size  sheets  were  they  on? 
They  were  about  40  by  60's,  something  like 
that.   It  all  depended  on  how  many,  if  the 
order  was  for  one  million  or  ten  million,  or 
whatever  i  t  was . 

You  must  have  had  a  big  warehouse. 
We  did.   We  had  quite  a  big  warehouse.   But 
now,  say  this  Ligget  and  Meyers,  Chesterfield, 
that  went  out  daily,  so  we  didn't  have  too  much 
warehousing  there.   They  just  took  them  away. 
They  [Ligget  and  Meyers]  were  right  down  at 
Third  and  Townsend  [streets]. 
What  about  your  paper  stock?   Did  you  season 
your  paper? 

Yes,  and  we  coated  our  own  paper.   We  bought 
the  paper  in  rolls  and  put  a  coating  on  it 
and  ran  it  through  a  calendaring  machine  and 
made  it  nice  and  shiny. 
And  then  sheeted  it? 

And  then  sheeted  it.   The  girls  had  to  sort  it 
and  inspect  it,  and  all  that. 


156 


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Teiser: 


I  was  amazed,  when  I  was  looking  at  the  photo 
graphs,  at  how  many  women  worked  in  the  plant. 
We  had  quite  a  few.   The  bindery  was  one  of 
the  big  departments.   And  years  ago  we  had  hand 
feeding  machines;  the  girls  had  to  do  that  too. 
They  had  women  press  feeders? 
Yes. 

The  bindery  department  was  mainly  cutting  and 
scoring,  and  so  forth? 

Well,  bookbinding.  We  did  a  lot  of  checkbooks, 
like  checkbooks  for  Crocker  First  National,  and 
all  those  banks. 
Catalogues? 

A  little  bit,  not  too  much.  That  was  more  of 
a  specialty  of  somebody  else. 
The  seed  bag  business  was  interesting,  wasn't 
it? 

Yes.   That  was  quite  a  job.  We  made  an  awful 
lot  of  different  kinds  of  seed  bags.   Many, 
many  kinds. 

Did  you  use  the  same  stock  cuts  for  various  dif 
ferent  companies? 

Well,  yes.   A  lot  of  them;  we  just  reprinted 
the  name  on  the  bottom. 
Printed  the  vignettes  and  then  added  the  names? 


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Whole  sheets,  yes.   Die  cut  them,  you  know, 
so  that  when  they  put  them  in  the  folding 
machine  they'd  come  out  as  an  envelope.   Seed 
bag  envelopes  we  called  them. 
Were  they  lithographed? 
Yes.   Yes,  we  lithographed  all  that. 
Would  you  ever  lithograph,  say,  a  lot  of  lettuce 
vignettes,  and  then  keep  them  on  hand  to  re 
print  as  orders  came  in? 
No,  we  didn't  do  too  much  of  that  because 
that  was  kind  of—you  didn't  know  what  the 
people  wanted.   Oh,  we  had  some;  stock  labels, 
we  called  them.   We  used  to  make  a  lot  of 
tomato  labels  and  reprint  the  names  on  those. 
What  about  wine  labels? 
Wine  labels  we  did  quite  a  little  too. 
Did  you  have  stock  vignettes  for  those? 
Well,  we  had  some,  yes.   But  lots  of  it  was 
privately  made,  for  themselves. 
Did  you  design  them?   Did  you  have  an  art 
department? 
Oh  yes,  we  had  our  own  sketching  department. 


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The  Company  and  Its  People 
How  many  people,  at  the  most, worked  in  the 
company? 

Oh,  roughly  about  500,  four  to  five  hundred. 
And  how  many  of  those  in  production? 
Maybe  four  hundred,  say.   A  hundred  were  in 
office  and  such  work.   We  had  quite  a  lot  of 
people.   That  included,  of  course,  our  branch 
offices.  We  had  a  branch  in  Los  Angeles,  in 
Chicago,  New  York,  Seattle,  Texas,  Florida- 
different  places. 
Those  were  sales  offices? 

Yes.   And  the  plant  in  Honolulu;  that  was  a 
lithograph  plant  there  too. 
Was  it  established  by  Schmidt  Lithograph  or 
was  it  bought  from  someone  else? 
It  was  a  little  outfit.   I  don't  know  how  we 
ever  got  into  it.  We  called  it  the  Honolulu 
Lithograph  Company;  we  didn't  call  it  Schmidt 
Lithograph . 

About  when  did  you  get  it? 

I  think  it  was  after  the  fire.   I  don't  remem 
ber  all  these  dates.   We  still  own  it.   It's 
still  known  as  the  Honolulu  Lithograph  Company, 
subsidiary  of  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company. 


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That  was  your  only  other  manufacturing  plant? 
Yes. 

About  how  large  an  operation  was  that? 
Oh,  maybe  they  might  have  had  about  a  hundred 
people,  fifty  or  a  hundred. 

Was  there  some  connection  between  that  and  one 
of  the  newspapers  in  Hawaii? 

Well,  indirectly.   The  manager  of  the  Honolulu 
Times-Star  was  a  fellow  named  Paul  Mcllree. 
He  finally  got  connected  with  us  in  the  busi 
ness.   He  is  now  retired,  but  he  was  our 
representative  down  there. 
When  did  you  retire? 

About  six  years  ago.   I  was  there  fifty-five 
years,  I  guess. 

That's  a  wonderfully  long  career,  isn't  it? 
Well,  we  stayed  longer  than  we  should  have, 
I  guess.   [laughter]   They  have  started  a 
pension  plan  now. 

Hadn't  there  been  one  before  recently? 
Not  too  much  of  a  one,  no. 
Did  all  the  members  of  the  family  have  an 
interest  in  the  company?  Did  you  all  own  some 
stock? 
Yes.   My  son  was  not  interested  in  it.   My 


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daughter  never  worked  there,  but  they  finally 
got  some  stock  and  kept  that. 
All  of  you  who  were  in  the  business  have  a 
little  stock? 

Oh  yes.  We  had  this  little  group  of  five 
Schmidts.   We  called  ourselves  the  Schmidt 
Investment  Company.   [Laughter]   My  two 
brothers  and  myself  and  two  cousins,  Richard 
Schmidt,  Jr.  and  Max  H.  Schmidt?  We  used  to 
pick  up  the  stock  where  we  could;  if  it  was 
lying  around  loose,  we'd  pitch  in  and  buy  it 
and  divide  it  up  into  five  pieces,  and  let  it 
go  at  that. 

People  outside  the  family  owned  it? 
Oh  yes,  quite  a  few.  We  had  maybe  fifty, 
sixty  stockholders  outside  the  company. 
Were  they  friends  and  business  associates? 
Mostly  that  way,  yes,  mostly  through  friend 
ship.   It  was  never  on  the  market. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  I  heard  something  about 
somebody  coming  from  Germany  at  one  time--maybe 
it  was  Mr.  Max  Junior's  brother,  coming  here 
with  some  money  and  lending  it—buying  stock. 
Max's  brother.   I  don't  know.   He  was  quite 
friendly  with  my  uncle  —  that  was  Kurt  Schmidt. 


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He  was  in  the  paper  business  in  Germany 
That  was  what  sort  of  got  him  connected  out 
here.   But  he  didn't  live  here  very  long. 
Max  Schmidt  Senior's  brother-in-law,  Mr. 
Rahsskopff,  was  he  a  very  inventive  man? 
He  was  very  mechanical.   He  didn't  really  invent 
things,  but  he  made  a  lot  of  improvements  on 
machinery  in  the  factory. 
Had  he  been  in  the  printing  business? 
No,  he  was  in  the  watch  business,  clocks  and 
watches.   He  never  knew  anything  about  the 
printing  business,  but  he  got  into  it  very 
quickly  and  was  a  good  mechanic. 
He  was  Max  Schmidt  Senior's  generation? 
Uncle  Max's.   He  was  the  oldest  of  them  all. 
He  was  quite  elderly. 

It  was  a  very  close  company,  wasn't  it? 
More  or  less.   And  the  relationship  was  close 
too. 

And  the  employees  too  were.  .  . 
Yes,  they  had  a  lot  of  relatives  in  the  com 
pany.   Did  you  see  Mr.  Herman  Diedrichs? 
I 'm  going  to . 

He  was  in  the  lithograph  division  as  superin 
tendent  of  the  printing  plant.   He  was  there 


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for  a  long  time.   Practically  the  only  job 
he  ever  had  in  his  life,  I  guess.   His  wife 
was  one  of  the  press  feeders  and  he  fell  in 
love  with  her.   [Laughter]   A  lot  of  that  was 
goi  ng  on  a  1 1  the  time . 
I  want  to  ask  you  about  the  women  press 
feeders:   was  there  a  transition  that  was 
gradual  from  women  to  men  in  the  pressroom? 
When  they  did  away  with  the  feeding,  when  they 
became  [developed]  automatic  [mechanical] 
feeders,  why  the  women  lost  their  work. 
I  see.   There  were  still  men  who  did  some  press 
feeding  after  that,  though,  weren't  there? 
Oh  yes,  a  few;  apprentices  and  things  like 
that. 

Then  didn't  feeding  later  become  more  a  job 
for  apprentice  pressmen? 

Well,  yes,  but  the  girls  only  fed  the  presses 
by  hand;  it  was  hand  feeding. 
And  then  they  also  did  paper  hanging? 
They  did  the  paper  hanging,  yes,  and  the  sorting 
and  picking  of  the  sheets  out  as  they  were 
printed.   They  had  to  be  inspected  too. 
What  date  did  you  retire,  incidentally? 
Gee,  I  don't  know.  .  .19.  .  .  That'll  tell  you. 


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Oh,  you've  got  a  watch.   Inscribed  "Presented 
to  Bernhard  Schmidt  5/6/1905-1955,  by  the 
employees  of  Schmidt  Lithograph  Co."   Isn't 
that  a  fine  watch.   That  was  presented  to  you 
when  you'd  been  there  fifty  years. 
Yes,  I  retired  in  1959. 

Were  there  women  still  doing  some  of  the  paper 
sorting  operations  when  you  retired? 
Oh  yes,  they  did  that  right  along. 
I  suppose  that  comes  under  bindery  work? 
Bindery  work,  yes,  cutting  and  binding. 
They  no  longer  were  hanging  paper,  though,  were 
they? 

Yes,  we  had  to  hang  sheets  too. 
Still,  in  the  1950's? 
Yes,  they  had  to  be  seasoned. 
Was  that  done  by  women,  still? 
No,  not  so  much,  no. 
By  men  by  then? 
Yes. 

There  was  another  general  question  I  had.   I 
wanted  to  try  to  place  Schmidt  Lithograph 
Company  in  relation  to  other  printing  and 
lithography  companies,  nationally.   Were  there 
some  in  the  East  that  were  similar? 


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Oh,  yes. 
What  were  they? 
Stecher  Company 
In  Rochester,  New  York? 

In  Rochester.   Then  there  was  the--oh,  gee, 
in  Boston  there  was  a  big  lithograph  company. 
Was  there  one  in  Baltimore? 
Oh,  yes,  a  lot  in  Baltimore  too.   Baltimore 
was  quite  a  lithograph  city.   I  can't  think 
of  the  names  right  now. 

Did  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  have  equipment 
or  do  things  in  any  way  that  was  very  much  in 
advance  of  any  other  similar  company  in  the 
c  o  u  n  t  ry  ? 

No,  they  were  all  about  the  same.   They  all 
kept  it  going  about  the  same. 
I  think  that  these  pictures  of  the  Schmidt 
Lithograph  Company  will  be  of  interest,  par 
ticularly  because  Schmidt  must  have  been  quite 
typical  of  a  group  of  large  printing  and  litho 
graphing  firms  of  its  period. 
Oh,  yes.   There  were  quite  a  few.   Schmidt 
was  only  the  tops  of  all  of  them,  I  guess. 
In  size,  and  quality,  and  everything  else. 
Was  it  the  top,  or  was  it  one  of,  say,  three 
or  four,  or  what? 


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One  of  three  or  four.   The  Stecher  Company 
I  remember,  and  Rochester  Lithograph  Company. 
I  can't  think  of  them. 

Each  of  them,  I  suppose,  had  its  own  indiv 
idual  modifications.   I  think  you  said  that 
Mr.  Rahsskopff  had  made  some  modifications 
of  equipment  at  Schmidt. 

He  was  quite  a  mechanic,  yes.   He  did  a  lot 
of  things  around  there  that  nobody  else  could 
do.   Mechanically  he  was  very  brainy. 
Did  he  make  modifications  of  equipment  that 
were  unique  to  that  plant? 
Well,  in  a  way,  yes.   But  I  can't  think 
just  what  he  specialized  on. 

Mutual  Label  &  Litho.  Co. 


1903  Photograph  Album 

Mrs.  Stewart  Morris  gave  me  two  albums  and  a 
number  of  single  photographs  for  the  Bancroft 
Library.   I'll  show  them  to  you  and  ask  you  to 
identify  the  people  and  equipment  in  them. 
Okay. 

This  album  is  lettered  on  the  cover:   "Mutual 
Label  and  Litho  Co.,  San  Francisco,  Cal . 
Christmas,  1903."   It  belonged  to  Mr.  Rahsskopbb. 
It's  got  his  name  in  it  and  the  date  "Aug.  1905." 
I  numbered  the  pages.   Here's  page  1. 


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That's  the  original  building.  It  was  dyna 
mited  and  blown  up,  destroyed  in  the  [1906] 
fire. 

That  was  at  Bryant.  .  .? 

Second  and  Bryant.   This  is  Second  Street. 
Second  Street  on  the  left,  and  Bryant  on  the 
right.   Page  2. 

Those  are  the  directors.  That's  my  father, 
Mr.  Richard  Schmidt. 

He's  second  from  left.   Is  this  Mr.  Rahsskopff, 
at  the  left  end? 

That's  Mr.  Rahsskopff.   That's  Mr.  Max  Schmidt. 
On  the  right  end? 

Yes.   Mr.  Henry  Wehr.   He  was  secretary. 
Second  from  right. 

And  that  was  Mr.  Jones.   He  was  a  vice-president 
also. 

Third  from  right.   Did  he  come  in  during  that 
Mutual  Label  and  Lithographic  Company  consol 
idation? 
Yes. 

This  is  page  3. 
That  was  Mr.  Max  here. 
With  his  cap  on  [second  from  left]. 
Yes.   That's  Frank  Gamble. 


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In  the  foreground. 

Yes.   That  was  my  father,  I  guess  [right  of 

center  pillar].   And  that's  the  secretary. 

Is  that  in  the  office? 

It's  in  the  office,  yes.   This  is  all  down 

in  this  original  building. 

Yes.   I  guess  everything  in  this  book  is. 

All  before  the  fire. 

Page  4. 

That's   just   another   picture   of   the    office. 

Page   5. 

That's  my  father. 

At  the  right? 

Yes.   That's  Mr.  Max  H.  Schmidt  [Max  Schmidt, 

Junior] .  .  . 

Next  to  him  [second  from  right]. 

Mr.  Rahsskopff.  .  . 

Next  to  him  [third  from  right]. 

That's  Oscar  Heath. 

To  the  left  [left  end] . 

And  that's  Jake  Zellerbach.* 

With  the  derby? 

Yes.   He  was  selling  paper. 

Do  you  know  who  he  is,  sitting  there  [third 

from  left]? 

* 

See  also  comments  of  Max  Schmidt, Jr.  and  Herman 
Diedrichs  on  this  photograph. 


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No,  I  don't. 

Page  6. 

It's  hard  to  tell  these  fellows,  but  they  were 

all  artists. 

This  was  the  art  department? 

Art  department,  yes. 

Page  7. 

This  was  the  paper  stock  department.   We  used 

to  have  to  lay  the  sheets  out  in  trays,  get  the 

air  into  them. 

Is  that  what  that  girl  is  doing? 

Yes,  she  is  putting  them  in  and  traying  them 

and  all  that. 

Page  8. 

This  is  the  bookbinding.* 

What  are  those  wheels? 

That's  a  saw,  rotary  saw. 

Here's  page  9. 

There's  your  lithograph  stones.   That's  the 

machine  we  used  to  polish  them. 

The  round  thing? 

Yes. 

What  department  was  that? 

We  called  that  the  lithograph  department. 

Plate  graining. 

* 

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Page  10. 

That's  the  same  thing.   That's  quite  a  big 

stone  there. 

What's  it  on? 

It's  on  a  handpress.  We  put  it  through  and 

then  it'd  pull  an  impression. 

You  didn't  use  this  press  for  production? 

No,  not  this  one.   This  was  only  for  getting 

impressi  ons  . 

Page  1 1  . 

That's  the  same  thing.   This  is  where  we  made 

the  plates  and  put  them  on  big  plates. 

And  these  are  stones  again,  aren't  they? 

Yes. 

You  didn't  make  aluminum  plates  there? 

No,  not  here.   These  were  all  stone. 

Page  12. 

Same  thing,  only  around  the  corner. 

Page  13. 

Same  thing.   There  are  some  pretty  big  stones. 

Page  14. 

That  was  a  small  lithograph  press.   That's  a 

girl  feeding  [at  left].   That  was  a  small  offset 

press  [right].* 


See  also  description  of  this  photograph  in 
interview  of  Herman  Diedrichs. 


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Page  15. 

Those  are  printing  presses. 
Miehles? 

I  guess  they  were  Miehles,  yes.   They  would 
run  through  and  back. 
Page  16. 

Now  here  we  come  to  the  bigger  presses. 
Aluminum  presses  we  called  them.   Just  the 
plate  was  aluminum.   We  had  a  pretty  good- 
sized  sheet  there,  see? 
Yes.   About  how  big  is  it? 
About  40  by  60. 
Page  17. 

Lithograph  stone  presses.   There's  one  of  our 
posters . 

In  the  background.   Oh,  yes.   Two  of  them. 
Page  18. 

Same,  stone  presses. 

Do  you  recognize  the  man  in  the  suit  [right]? 
Yes,  my  father.   He  was  very  methodical.   They 
always  knew  when  he  was  coming  around.   Then 
they'd  start  working.   [Chuckle]   So  methodical 
you  could  set  the  clock  by  him. 
Page  19. 

That's  the  aluminum  plate.   It's  fastened  on  a 
cyl inder. 


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Page  20. 

Stone  presses. 

Page  21 

Stone  presses,  see  them? 

Oh,  yes.   Page  22. 

That's  what  they  call  the  cutting  and  creasing 

presses;  you  know,  for  cutting  cardboard  and 

cartons.   The  presses  go  up  and  down  like  that. 

A  whole  row  of  them? 

Yes,  a  whole  row. 

Page  23. 

* 
Stone  presses  too. 

Page  24. 

Same  thing. 

Page  25. 

This  is  the  cutting  department.   See,  there  are 

the  cutting  machines. 

Yes,  to  the  left. 

You'd  have  to  square  the  sheets  up  and  cut  them 

very  exactly,  to  fit  the  cans  and  things. 

Page  26. 

That's  where  the  girls  used  to  do  what  we 

called  squaring  the  sheets,  so  that  we  could 

cut  them.   They  had  to  be  all  square.   They 

couldn't  be  crooked. 

i 

See  also  interview  of  Herman  Diedrichs  for 
press  identifications. 


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You  cut  them  in  stacks? 

Yes. 

Are  those  dies  on  the  wall? 

Yes,  those  are  different  steel  dies. 

Did  you  do  much  die  cutting  of  labels? 

Yes,  yes.   Quite  a  little. 

Where  was  the  die  cutting  press  then? 

Pretty  close  to  here. 

Here's  page  27. 

There's  the  machinery. 

Are  those  die  cutting  presses? 

Yes. 

Page  28  is.  .  .  ? 

This  is  the  gluing  machines.   There's  a  glue 

pot  there.   We  had  a  girl  who  folded  the  sheet 

over  and  ran  it  through. 

What  did  you  use  gluing  machines  for? 

Gluing  the  cartons  together,  you  know. 

Oh,  I  see. 

Old-time  foreman.   His  name's  Pierce. 

With  the  moustache  there? 

Yes. 

Page  29. 

This  looks  as  if  it  might  be  the  machine  shop 

or  something.   Oh  no,  this  is  where  we  made  the 


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electrotypes.   You  can't  see  much  of  an 

operation  there,  but  that  was  it. 

Page  30. 

This  is  the  machine  shop.   We  did  our  own 

repair  work  and  things. 

Page  31  . 

That's  the  electrical. 

The  electrical  department? 

Yes.   Motor  room,  generators. 

Page  32. 

That  was  part  of  the  cutting  department. 

See,  here's  where  the  labels  were  all  stacked 

up. 

Oh  yes,  to  the  right. 

The  girls  would  have  to  wrap  them  up  in  packages 

of  a  thousand. 

Oh,  this  is  the  way  they  delivered  labels? 

Yes. 

Page  33  this  is. 

This  was  more  or  less  the  packing  department, 

I'd  say.   You  see,  these  were  all  stock  labels 

that  we  had  here  that  were  stored  there.   Well, 

we  called  it  packing  but  it  was  under  the 

shipping  department. 

Page  34. 


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That  was  a  varnish  machine.   It  would  var 
nish  the  sheets.   They  would  go  up  and  go  down 
the  track  here  and  then  come  back  on  the  tape 
here;  then  we'd  take  them  off. 
They  were  drying  on  those  lines? 
Yes,  a  hot  box. 

You  varnished  after  you  printed? 
Yes.   That  was  the  last  operation  before  we 
cut  them. 
Page  35. 

That's  the  gathering  of  the  calendars.   They'd 
pick  them  up  as  they  went  along. 
Did  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  put  out  a 
calendar  every  year? 

Yes,  but  for  other  people  too.   This  happened 
to  be  our  own,  I  think. 
Page  36. 

This  is  the  ink  department.   We  used  to  grind 
our  own  inks . 

Schmidt  Lithograph  Co. 
1909  Photograph  Album' 

This  is  the  second  album.   It's  stamped  on  the 
cover  "Schmidt  Lithograph  Co.  Second  and 
Bryant  Sts .  San  Francisco.   1909."   It  be 
longed  to  Mr.  Rahsskopff  too.   I  have  numbered 


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the  pages  of  it.   It  has  some  captions,  but 

anything  you  can  add  to  them.  .  .  This  is 

page  1 . 

That's  the  building. 

They  were  still  using  horse-drawn  drays. 

Yes,  they  used  those  for  quite  a  while.   I 

guess  it's  the  building  after  the  fire.   The 

building  before  the  fire  had  a  skylight  in 

there.   I  don't  know  whether  it  shows  in 

there  or  not. 

Page  2. 

This  is  after  the  fire.   We  bought  this  lot 

here.   The  tower  building  is  in  there  [now]. 

What  street  is  this? 

Second  Street. 

Page  3  is.  .  .? 

Same  thing. 

Is  this  canopy  still  there? 

No.   That's  been  torn  down.   The  entrance  is 

down  here  further. 

This  is  page  4. 

This    is    the   director's    room.      They're    all    in 

here.      That's    Mr.    Max,    Mr.    Chickering. 

What  had  he  to  do  with  the  company? 

He  was  one  of  the  directors. 

He  was  an  attorney,  was  he? 


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Yes.   Chickering  and  Gregory. 
He  was  not  in  the  management  of  the  company? 
No. 

How  did  he  happen  to  be  a  director,  do  you 
know? 

Oh,  I  don't  know.   I  guess  he  was  Mr.  Max's 
friend  in  the  Commercial  Club.  And  then  Mr. 
Moffitt  of  Blake,  Moffitt  and  Towne.   He  was 
in  the  paper  business.   And  E.  L.  Hueter  with 
the  Bass-Hueter  Paint  Co. 

How  did  he  happen  to  be  on  the  board  of  direc 
tors? 

They  were  very  close;  my  uncle  and  Mr.  Hueter 
were  very  close  friends. 
Your  uncle  Max? 

Yes.   They  both  lived  in  Mill  Valley. 
I.  L.  Borden;  he  was  one  of  the  directors. 
He  was  not  in  the  company  management? 
No.   And  my  father.  My  cousin  Dick. 
Your  cousin  Dick  was  the  one  who  later  became 
president  of  the  company? 
Yes. 

And  died  some  years  ago? 
Yes.* 
Did  he  directly  succeed  your  uncle  as  president? 


March  7,  1958. 


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I  think  he  did,  yes.   I  think  he  did.   Then 
my  brother  came  in  after. 

Your  brother  Carl  became  president  next? 

* 
Yes.   Then  his  son,  Lorenz  Schmidt,  became 

the  president  after  Carl  Schmidt. 
Here's  page  5. 

That's  Mr.  Schmidt,  Mr.  Rahsskopff,  Mr. 
Richard  Schmidt,  my  father;  these  are  the  two 
Traung  brothers.   Charlie  Traung  was  manager 
of  the  art  department.   Louie  Traung  was 
manager  of  the  printing  department.   Fred 
Brune  was  an  old-time  bookkeeper. 
Had  he  been  with  the  company  for  many  years? 
Many  years,  yes.   And  Schoof--he  was  estimat 
ing  department. 
Was  he  related  to  anybody? 
No,  just  a  German  friend. 
And  Mr.  Miller? 

Louie  Miller,  he  was  secretary. 
Was  he  also  a  regular  member  of  the  firm? 
Yes,  he  was  a  director.   Then  he,  after  a 
while,  got  his  own  Miller  Lithograph  Company. 
So  he  left,  and  also  the  Traung  brothers  left 
Yes. 
What  were  the  Traung  brothers  like? 


Interview,  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company, 
Vol.  II. 


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Oh,  they  were  well-liked.   Personally  I  liked 

Louie  better  than  Charlie.   I  told  you  the 

story  about  Louie  coming  to  my  uncle  to  get  a 

job.   And  he  said,  "Sure,  go  ahead,  go  to  work." 

The  next  day  the  brother  came  in,  the  twin 

brother.   He  said,  "I  want  a  job."  He  said, 

"I  hired  you  yesterday.   Go  to  work." 

[Laughter] 

What  did  they  start  out  doing? 

They  were  just  fly  boys  and  apprentices.   They 

learned  the  trade. 

Was  one  of  them  more  able  than  the  other? 

Yes,  Louie,  whom  we  all  thought  was  the  oldest. 

[Chuckle]   He  had  the  brains. 

I  see.  What  did  Charlie  have? 

He  had  a  lot  of  hot  air.   [Laughter] 

Was  Louie  a  good  mechanic? 

Yes,  he  was  a  good  mechanic. 

Were  they  liked  by  your  uncle? 

Oh,  yes.   They  were  pretty  well  liked  all 

around . 

Here's  page  6.   What  office  is  this? 

That's  the  main  office. 

Who  are  those  men?  Do  you  recognize  any  of  them? 

One  might  have  been  Mr.  Schoof. 


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The  man  with  the  moustache? 

Fred  Brune.   That's  all  I  know.   They  were 

just  office  boys  in  there. 

Here's  a  girl  peeking  out  behind  there. 

It  might  have  been  Gussie  Tanforan. 

How  do  you  spell  her  last  name? 

The  same  as  the  race  track  people.   She  was 

related  to  them  somehow. 

Oh,  I  see.   Was  she  the  one  who  could  swear 

like  a  trooper? 

Oh,  yes,  she  was  pretty  good. 

Page  7. 

That's  the  main  office.   That's  my  uncle  and 

Mr.  Miller. 

Your  uncle  is  in  the  foreground  to  the  right. 

Mr.  Miller  is  directly  behind  him  at  the  desk 

My  father. 

Your  father  is  third  back. 

Dick  Schmidt. 

Dick  Schmidt  is  to  the  right  of  your  father? 

Yes.   That's  Mr.  Schoof. 

Mr.  Schoof  is  fourth  back. 

And  my  brother  Carl  there. 

Carl  to  his  right. 

And   there's    some   of   the   office   girls.      That 

is    May    Cardozo. 


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May  Cardozo  is  to  the  lower  left. 

She  married  this  fellow.   Richard  Schmidt  [Jr.], 

Were  there  lots  of  marriages  within  the  firm? 

Not  too  many,  no.   There's  Edna  Maker. 

She's  at  the  typewriter,  to  the  left. 

Yes.   She  married  a  fellow  named  Black,  Bill 

Black,  in  the  factory.   I  can't  recognize  any 

more . 

Here's  page  8,  east  side  of  the  office. 

That's  the  other  counter.   See,  there's  Mr.  Max 

in  there. 

Oh,  with  the  cap  on,  yes.   Did  Mr.  Max  often 

wear  a  cap? 

Yes,  he  always  wore  a  cap.   He  and  Mr.  Rahsskopff 

Mr.  Rahsskopff  wore  a  skull  cap. 

Why?  Didn't  he  have  any  hair  on  his  head? 

Oh,  just  a  matter  of  habit,  I  guess.   That's 

Bill  Reed,  I  think. 

At  the  second  desk  in  the  center  there. 

He  married  a  girl  from  Oakland. 

Here's  page  9.   Sketching  department.   What 

did  they  do? 

They  designed  the  labels  and  made  the  sketches. 

Just  the  roughs? 

No,  finished  sketches.   See,  they  had  all  those 


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drawings  up  there.   If  a  man  wanted  a  tomato 

label  they'd  have  to  design  it  for  him,  or 

colored  lithograph  of  some  kind. 

Were  they  well-paid  men? 

Yes,  very  highly  paid. 

Page  10.   Chemical  laboratory.   I  didn't  realize 

you  had  one. 

Oh,  yes.   That's  Doc  Jaggard.   His  name  was 

Jaggard.   We  called  him  "Doc"  because  he'd  take 

care  of  the  emergency  accidents  in  the  factory. 

What  was  his  regular  duty? 

He  was  a  chemist. 

What  did  he  do? 

Designed,  or  made  up  the  inks,  put  in  the  right 

materials  for  inks,  adjusted  the  colors,  and 

all  that. 

Were  there  any  things  other  than  inks  in  the 

laboratory? 

Mostly  inks. 

Page  11.   That's  everybody. 

That's  myself  in  here. 

At  the  right  end  of  the  front  row. 

Here,  with  the  pocket,  yes.   That's  my  uncle 

Max,  my  dad,  and  Mr.  Rahsskopff,  Mr.  Andy  Hynes . 

Mr.  Rahsskopff  with  the  little  hat  in  the  group 

at  the  right  end  of  the  second  row.   Your  father 


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with  the  long  white  moustache  there? 
That's  my  father. 

Then  to  the  left  and  a  little  behind  is  Mr. 
Rahsskopff.   To  the  left  of  him  some  one  in 
overalls.   Then  .  .  . 
Mr.  Max. 

Then  a  little  to  the  left,  in  the  front  tow, 
with  your  hands  in  your  pockets  is  you. 
Yes.   And  the  Traungs  are  in  here. 
The  Traungs  are  behind  you? 

Yes.   That's  one  of  them.   Over  here  is  brother 
Max,  Henry  Wehr,  Fred  Brune. 

These  are  on  the  left,  standing  off  toward  the 
rear. 

And  German  MaxT  These  are  all  the  bindery 
girls  in  here.  .  . 
In  the  front  row. 
Page  12,  the  artist  department. 
Those  are  all  artists. 

Are  those  the  people  who  did  the  final  render 
ings  after  the  sketches? 

After  the  sketches  were  made,  they  separated 
the  colors  and  made  the  plates.   They  designed 
the  labels  after  the  sketch  artists  would 
give  them  an  idea  of  the  first  ones,  and  they 
then  reproduced  them  in  here  after. 


Max  Schmidt,  Jr. 


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Page  13.   Metal  engraving  department.   What 

kind  of  plates  were  those? 

Those  are  zincographs  and  electrotypes. 

Wasn't  Schmidt  Lithograph  a  pioneer  in  the  use 

of  zincographs  in  this  country? 

Well,  might  have  been,  might  have  been. 

By  your  day,  I  suppose,  everyone  was  doing  it 

though? 

Yes.   We  did  quite  a  little  of  it. 

Did  the  men  in  this  department  do  hand  work? 

Did  they  do  hand  correction? 

Well,  they  did  engraving,  metal  engraving. 

This  was  done  by  hand? 

Some  of  it,  yes.   And  some  of  it  was  done  by 

acid,  etching. 

Who's  this  fellow  in  the  center  here?   Do 

you  know  him? 

That's  Mr.  Arnold  Iken. 

The  fellow  in  the  center  in  the  dark  moustache 

Here's  page  14.   Is  this  he  too,  at  the  right? 

That's  he  again.   That's  the  same  department. 

What  are  these? 

These  are  all  original  plates. 

In  the  cabinet? 

Yes. 


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What  are  all  these  pulleys  up  there  for? 
There  are  routing  machines;  they  routed  the 
different  work  out. 

Oh,  yes.   The  pulleys  are  running  them. 
Page  15.   The  transfer  department. 
That's  the  lithograph  end  of  it.   These  are 
all  lithograph  stones. 
What  was  transferring? 

Transferring  was  taking  the  original  and  putting 
it  onto  a  bigger  plate,  or  a  bigger  stone.   They 
pulled  the  impressions,  then  put  them  onto  a 
stone,  and  then  pulled  another  impression  off 
of  that. 

They  actually  transferred  an  image  onto  the 
stone? 
Yes. 

How  was  it  etched  onto  it? 
it  was  just  etched  on,  period. 
By  acid? 

Yes.   There  was  the  foreman,  George  Caldwell. 
In  the  apron  in  the  right  foreground? 
Yes. 

Page  16. 

Same  thing  [as  page  15].   You  see,  there's  one 
of  the  originals,  on  stone.   They  take  the 


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impression.   If  they  needed  a  big  sheet  and 

had  six  impressions  on  there,  they  had  to  pull 

six  impressions,  put  that  down  on  their  [big] 

stone  six  times. 

So  they'd  run  it  six  up  then,  in  the  end? 

Yes. 

What  is  this  in  the  foreground? 

This  was  a  hand  press.   Impressions  were  pulled 

off  of  this  hand  press.   If  you  wanted  six,  you 

had  to  pull  six  impressions  to  put  on  the  stone 

Then  the  six  were  transferred  to  one  stone. 

One  stone  that  was  put  on  the  press  and  printed 

Page  17. 

That  is  the  same  thing.  This  is  the  polishing 

machi  ne. 

To  the  left. 

Between  each  operation  the  work  had  to  be 

polished  off,  and  the  next  job  put  on. 

Each  stone  was  polished  then? 

Yes. 

These  in  the  foreground  were  big,  weren't  they? 

They  were  pretty  big.   They  couldn't  be  lifted. 

It  took  about  six  men  to  lift  the  things.   We 

had  a  portable  table  that  carried  them  around. 

What  is  this  in  the  center  right? 


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That's  a  hand  press. 

With  the  stone  on  it? 

Yes. 

What  is  he  doing? 

Pulling  impressions,  I  guess. 

It's  not  a  production  press? 

A  proving  press. 

Page  18. 

These  are  the  marbles  that  we  used  to  polish 

the  plates.   That  just  moved  around,  and  those 

little  lead  balls  just  polished  the  thing  off, 

and  cleaned  it,  and  etched  it,  and  we  put  it 

on  for  the  next  job. 

Aluminum  plates? 

Yes. 

When  did  they  come  in? 

They  came  in  quite  a  while  ago.   I  don't  know. 

Were  they  in  use  when  you  came  into  the  plant? 

Just  about,  yes. 

They  put  the  plate  down  flat  in  this  box-like 

apparatus  and  then  they  put  these  metal   balls 

on  top? 

Marbles  . 

And  then  how  were  they  moved? 

The  tables  shake.   And  then  the  marbles  would 

move  around  and  polish  it  all  off. 


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Were  they  glass  or  metal? 

Regular  marbles. 

How  did  they  get  them  out  of  that  tray  then? 

Oh,  I  don't  know.   They  shoveled  them  out. 

How  often  could  an  aluminum  plate  be  used? 

Oh,  quite  a  long  time.   It  doesn't  wear  out 

at  all  . 

They  weren't  used  flat,  were  they? 

They  were  curved  on  a  cylinder;  you  could  bend 

them. 

Here  is  page  19.   Book  bindery. 

That's  the  cutting  room.   They  cut  the  labels. 

That  is  the  foreman. 

In  the  middle.   What  was  his  name? 

Arthur  Bray.   Father  William  and  son  Arthur 

worked  in  the  same  department. 

What  is  this? 

That's  a  cutting  machine.   These  are  the  girls 

that  did  the  sorting. 

Let's  see,  page  20.   Book  bindery,  south  side. 

That's  where  they  sorted  labels;  and  wrapping. 

From  off  the  cutting  room  they'd  wrap  them  up 

in  thousands  . 

Is  that  another  cutter  in  the  background? 

That  was  a  press  for  padding  things.   They'd 

put  it  in  there  and  it  would  press  it  down  and 


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it  would  glue  them  up,  the  sheets,  then  lift 
the  press  off  and  slice  them  in  pieces. 
My,  you  had  pretty  girls  in  the  plant. 
Yes.   This  girl  was  one  of  the  Traungs.   A 
daughter  of  Louie  Traung's. 
This  girl  in  the  foreground  at  the  right? 
Yes.   That  was  the  forelady. 
To  the  left  in  the  front.   The  Traung  girl's 
the  one  with  the  bow  under  her  chin.   Did  she 
continue  to  working  for  Schmidt  Lithograph 
after  the  Traungs  set  up  their  own  company? 
No,  no.   She  didn't  stay  very  long.   They  all 
get  ma-rried  and  then  they  quit. 
Page  21  . 

That's  the  job  printing. 
What  sort  of  thing  did  they  do? 
They  did  letterheads  and  reprints. 
What  is  a  reprint? 

A  reprint  is  when  they  have  the  label  and  they 
want  the  man's  name  on  it,  why  we  reprint  it 
in  there. 

You  put  it  in  a  blank  space  on  there? 
Yes. 

If  you  get  the  wrong  number  of  ounces  and 
you  black  it  out,  is  that  reprinting  too? 


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Yes,  you  can  call  it  reprinting. 

Page  22,  carton  department.   Is  this  carton 

stock? 

This  is  cardboard.   There  is  a  die  machine. 

You  see,  all  the  waste  is  on  the  floor  there. 

They  die-cut  the  different  cartons  out  of  the 

sheet. 

Are  those  Miehle  presses  that  they  are  using 

for  it? 

These  are  Miehles,  yes. 

They  were  run  with  those  overhead  pulleys? 

No,  that  was  just  because  you  had  one  motor 

here  and  transferred  it  down  on  the  floor. 

Both  of  them  were  run  off  one  shaft? 

Yes. 

Page  23.   Carton  department. 

Same  thing. 

What  kinds  of  cartons  did  you  make? 

Raisin  cartons,  anything;  candy  cartons,  any 

old  thing. 

Could  you  handle  heavy  board? 

Oh  yes,  24  point.   Mostly  it  was  15  point  board 

Page  24,  carton  department.   Folding  and 

gluing . 

That's  the  same  thing. 

Was  there  a  lot  of  hand  work  involved? 


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190 

Quite  a  little,  yes.   You  had  to  fold  them  and 
run  them  through  the  machine. 
This  is  a  folding  machine  to  the  right? 
That's  one  of  them,  yes.   There's  another  one 
here . 

To  the  left.   Did  they  have  to  be  hand  fed? 
Well,  they  go  down  on  a  chute,  like,  and  the 
machine  picks  them  up. 
Page  25.   The  factory  office. 
The  factory  office.   That's  where  I  used  to 
hang  out. 

Is  that  your  cousin  Max,  Junior? 
Yes. 

To  the  left. 

Max,  Junior;  Mr.  Rahsskopff;  Oscar  Heath;  oh, 
I  don't  know,  one  of  the  office  boys. 
From  left  to  right  that  is,  with  the  office  boy 
behind  Oscar  Heath.   You  were  factory  manager? 
I  was  in  the  shipping  office  first.   Then  it 
became  factory  office. 
So  that  was  your  permanent  office? 
Yes.   Oh,  we  moved  around  different  times. 
Page  26,  the  shipping  office.   Who  is  the 
fellow  in  the  derby? 

That's  Mr.  Louis  Hartmann.   He  was  the  boss  of 
the  shipping  department.   Gertie  Gilbert. 


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191 

Who's  the  fellow  in  the  center? 
I  can't  think  now. 
Page  27. 

These  are  the  roustabouts,  shipping  clerk's 
staff.   That's  Mr.  Hartmann. 
In  the  derby  again. 
Yes.   That  was  the  watchman. 
To  the  right. 
Rice. 

What's  this  machine? 

That's  a  time  clock.   Everybody  had  to  take 
a  card  and  put  it  in  there  and  punch  the  time 
clock.   We  had  those  all  over  the  factory. 
Page  28,  offset  press  department. 
Yes,  those  are  the  offset  presses.   They  are 
the  same  thing  as  the  lithograph  press  only 
they  printed  from  the  plate  to  a  rubber 
blanket  to  a  paper. 

Was  this  quite  new  at  this  time,  in  1909? 
Yes,  fairly  new;  yes. 
Who  is  this? 
That's  my  father  there. 

With  the  moustache,  standing  over  the  press. 
Mr.  Rahsskopff. 
With  the  little  cap. 


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What  kind  of  a  press  was  it? 
A  smal 1  Harri  s . 

Are  there  others  behind  it,  there,  like  it? 
There  are  a  lot  of  them.   There  were  two  or 
three  down  in  there.   Just  take  a  picture,  and 
they  all  stop  to  have  their  picture  taken. 
What  size  was  the  press,  do  you  remember? 
This  was  only  a  small  one,  this  was  only  about 
28,  42,  flatbed  size.   Then  they  went  to  32, 
46  and  44,  64,  and  so  on. 

Page  29.   Three-color  and  two-color  aluminum 
presses.   That  was  direct  lithography,  not 
offset,  is  that  right? 

That  was  offset.  Offset  means  that  it  goes 
from  a  plate  to  a  blanket  to  a  sheet.  They 
call  that  offsetting. 

I  thought  the  aluminum  presses  were  direct 
1 ithography . 

Some  of  them  were,  yes.   But  these  were  not. 
These  are  offset? 

Offset  presses,  yes.   You  see,  they  were  quite 
long,  because  the  paper  was  fed  in  from  here 
and  run  all  the  way  down. 

Page  30,  single-color  aluminum  presses.   Were 
they  direct  or  offset? 


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They  were  all  offset.   My  father,  with 

the  moustache  here. 

Oh,  to  the  left.   Mr.  Rahsskopff  and  your 

father.   Page  31 . 

Those  are  just  the  aluminum  presses,  as  we 

called  them.   But  they  are  all  lithograph 

presses.   And  there  were  quite  a  few  of  them. 

And  these  were  offset  too? 

No,  these  were  direct. 

This  is  your  father  again,  in  the  foreground? 

Yes,  and  Mr.  Louis  Traung. 

To  the  left  of  your  father,  in  the  foreground. 

Yes. 

Page  32,  bronzing. 

This  is  the  bronzing  machine.   We  had  Chinese 

men,  Chinamen  to  feed  the  bronze. 

It  was  kind  of  dirty  work,  the  bronzing, 
kind  of  dusty  and  dirty.  They  did  nothing  but 
just  take  the  excess  dust  of  bronze  off  of  the 
sheet. 

What  did  they  do  with  it  then? 
Saved  it. 

Put  it  back  and  on  the  next? 
Yes. 

Page  33,  two-color  Miehle  and  single-color 
Miehle. 


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Letterpresses . 

And  you  did  label  work  on  those? 

Yes. 

Is  this  one  of  the  Traungs  again,  in  the 

foreground? 

That's  one  of  the  Traungs.   And  George  Hilde- 

brand,  the  foreman. 

In  the  apron? 

Yes. 

Which  Traung  is  that? 

Louie.   Charlie  didn't  do  anything  in  the 

pressroom.   He  was  in  the  transfer  room. 

Page  34,  pressroom  center  aisle. 

This  is  a  big  skylight  here.  We  had  all  the 

presses  here. 

On  the  two  sides--!  see.  What's  this  in  the 

foreground? 

That's  a  pile  of  paper  that's  automatically 

fed;  as  the  sheets  go  down  in  the  press  the 

load  goes  up  until  it's  empty. 

That  was  one  of  the  early  feeders,  wasn't  It? 

They  still  have  them. 

Were  there  many  automatic  feeders  in  use  1n 

1909? 

Oh  quite  a  few,  yes. 


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Page  35,  north  side  of  general  pressroom. 
Those  are  printing  presses. 
Miehles? 
Mostly,  yes. 

Page  36,  general  pressroom  again. 
That's  the  same,  the  pressroom. 
Is  this  a  printing  press  in  the  foreground? 
Oh,  let's  see.   Yes,  I  guess  it  was.   See  the 
plates  around  down  underneath  there? 
Oh  yes. 

Page  37,  embossing  department. 
We  embossed  labels. 
This  is  Mr.  Rahsskopff  again? 
Mr.  Rahsskopff,  yes. 
He  must  have  been  all  over  the  plant. 
He  was  all  over,  yes. 
Page  38. 
Same  thing. 
Embossing. 

That's  a  hand  platen  embossing  press.   You  see 
the  sheet  was  fed  in  there  and  then  pressed 
against  the  back  of  it,  and  then  taken  out 
again. 

And  to  the  right? 
Cyl inder  presses  . 


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Were  they  too  used  for  embossing? 
Yes. 

You  used  a  die? 

Yes,  a  die,  and  made  a  counter  die  of  pre 
pared  mixture  of  litharge  and  glycerine.   That 
got  hard  enough  so  it  would  offset  the  impres 
sion  that  was  embossed.   You  know  the  embossing 
was  sunken  and  the  counter  die  was  the  opposite 
Did  you  make  your  own  embossing  dies  in  the 
plant? 
Oh,  yes. 

Page  39,  electrical  department. 

* 
That's  my  brother  Max. 

To  the  left. 

Yes.   And  "Dirty-faced  Mike"  we  called  him. 

To  the  right.   What  was  his  job? 

He  was  one  of  the  firemen,  or  whatever  he  was. 

Page  40. 

That  was  the  boiler  room. 

Did  the  power  to  run  all  those  presses  come 

from  the  boiler  room? 

Some  of  it,  yes.   A  lot  of  it  was  electricity? 

Did  you  have  your  own  electrical  plant? 

No,  we  got  it  in  from  the  outside. 

I  see.   It  was  all  direct  current,  then  wasn't 

it? 


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Indirect  too.   We  had  both. 
Page  41,  the  machine  shop.   What  was  that 
used  for? 

It  was  used  for  repair  work  and  different  things 
that  we  had  to  do.  There  is  Mr.  Rahsskopff. 
That's  the  foreman. 

The  sixth  from  the  left  is  the  foreman,  in  an 
apron  and  jacket. 
I  can't  think  of  his  name  now. 
Page  42,  electrotyping . 
That's  where  we  made  the  electrotypes. 
It  looks  like  dirty  work. 
It  was . 

How  did  they  make  them? 
It  was  poured.   It  was  a  lead  mixture. 
Page  43. 

Electrotyping,  same  thing. 
Did  you  run  much  of  your  work  from  electro 
types? 

A  lot  of  it.   All  the  printing  was  done  from 
electrotypes.   Of  course  the  lithographing 
was  done  from  a  lithograph  plate. 
Page  44. 

Here's  where  we  hung  the  paper  for  seasoning. 
That's  where  the  girls  hung  up  the  sheets. 


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Page  45. 

Box  making  and  carpenter  shop. 

Were  those  boxes  that  you  made  commercially, 

or  for  your  own  use? 

The  cartons  were  made  for  shipping  and  things 

like  that? 

For  your  own  use  in  shipping? 

Yes. 

You  didn't,  at  that  time,  make  cartons  for 

others? 

Wooden  cartons  —  no.   But  lots  of  paper  cartons 

Page  46. 

That  was  the  cutting  department.   These  are 

all  cutting  machines  in  there. 

Page  47,  die  cutting. 

We  used  to  have  dies  that  we'd  put  on  top  of 

the  sheet,  and  the  press  would  come  down  and 

cut  the  die  and  cut  the  labels,  you  see. 

Little  heart  shapes,  or  anything. 

That  was  hand  work,  wasn't  it,  making  those 

dies? 

Yes. 

Page  48. 

The  varnish  machines . 

Did  you  varnish  all  the  labels? 


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199 

A  lot  of  them,  yes.   Of  course  a  lot  of  them 
weren't  varnished. 

Were  the  varnishes  formulated  in  the  chemistry 
lab  too? 

That  was  a  regular  varnish,  prepared  varnish, 
made  by  the  ink  people.   The  sheet  would  come 
in  here  and  go  around  and  go  through  a  hot 
box  [to  be  dried]  'way  down  here,  and  then 
we'd  gather  it  up  down  there. 
This  is  a  hot  box,  this  wooden  structure  on 
legs? 

Yes,  about  a  block  long.   Here's  the  varnish 
here,  see? 

Right  at  the  front.   This  front  roller  is 
applying  the  varnish? 

Yes.   That  sheet  was  there  just  to--I  don't 
know  why,  to  keep  the  dust  off,  I  guess. 
In  the  foreground  there. 
That's  Henry  Hageman,   the  foreman. 
In  the  foreground. 

Page  49.   Corrugated  paper  department. 
We  made  our  own  corrugated. 
That  was  a  gluing  process?  Laminating? 
Corrugating  was  taking  two  pieces  of  paper 
and  putting  a  wrinkle  in  between  and  pasting  it 
together.   We  used  to  make  millions  of  corrugated 
boxes . 


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Was  there  automatic  equipment? 

Oh  sure,  great  big  long  presses. 

Is  this  just  where  the  pieces  were  finished? 

You  can't  see  any  of  them  in  the  picture? 

No. 

Page  50.   What  was  that  in  the  middle  there? 

That  piece  of  equipment. 

That's  for  die  cutting. 

Here's  51. 

That  was  one  of  the  corrugated  machines. 

This  is  what  corrugated  board  was  made  on? 

Yes.   You  take  it  out  and  press  it  down  through 

here . 

It  went  in  this  front  end,  to  the  left,  and 

out  the  far  end,  to  the  right.   This  is  a  belt, 

is  it,  an  endless  belt  that  is  sagging  under 

it? 

Yes.   That's  where  the  sheets  were  laid  when 

they  were  glued. 


Teiser: 


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Miscellaneous  Photographs 

Now  I'm  going  on  to  the  loose  pictures.   This 

one  marked  on  the  back  "Wm.   Hoi  1 i ngsworth" 

I'm  going  to  number  51-A. 

That's  a  varnish  machine.   You  feed  the  sheet 


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201 

down  underneath  here  and  it  would  come  up, 
get  varnished,  and  go  on  through  a  hot  box. 
This  loose  picture  numbered  51-B:   "Schmidt 
Lithograph  Co.,  Aug.  1914.  3600  Imp.  per  hour." 
It  says  on  the  back  that  it  came  from  "Leipsig 
Li  ndeman.  " 

You'd  lithograph  the  sheets  and  then  run  them 
through  this  bronzing  machine.   They'd  come 
out  here,  where  the  bronze  would  just  stick  on 
the  wet  part  of  the  sheet.   It  was  one  opera 
tion.   We  had  to  bronze  it  while  it  was  wet. 
This  is  another  1914  photograph  of  the  bronzing 
machine.   I've  numbered  it  51-C.   Who  are 
those  men  standing  there? 
That's  Andy  Hynes  and  the  foreman. 
Andy  Hynes  to  the  left.   What  are  they  bronzing 
there,  labels? 

Yes,  just  putting  the  gold  on. 
This  blue  one  must  be  of  another  bronzing 
machine?   (51-D) 

Yes,  bronzing  machine,  that's  it. 
This  51-E  must  have  been  an  ad  for  a  piece  of 
equi  pment . 

That's  Mr.  Max's  signature  [initials  on  back]. 
Oh,  it  is?   "March  14,  1916."  Was  this  a  piece 
of  equipment  that  you  were  going  to  buy? 


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I  guess  that's  so. 

What  is  it? 

It's  an  offset  press. 

I  see,  and  it  was  apparently  to  be  paid.  .  . 

Five  per  cent  cash  on  acceptance. 

Do  you  think  they  got  it? 

Well,  I  guess  so. 

These  last  pictures  were  laid  into  the  backs 

of /two  albums,  with  a  blue  print  of  a  United 

bronzing  machine  and  a  folder  for  a  Smyth 

gluing  and  pasting  machine.   Now  I'll  go  onto 

the  other  loose  photographs.   This  is  number 

52. 

This  is  a  Christmas  party  of  some  kind,  a 

dedication  or  something.   I  see  myself  in 

here . 

You're  in  the  foreground,  third  from  the  right, 

in  shirt  sleeves? 

Yes.   Arnold  Iken,  Andy  Hynes. 

Two  over  from  you,  to  the  left. 

This  is  52-A,  a  banquet. 

A  salesmen's  banquet,  a  salesmen's  convention. 

There's  Mr.  Max,  my  dad,  Doc  Jaggard,  Andy 

George.   Dick  Schmidt. 

Dick  Schmidt  is  to  the  far  left? 

Yes. 


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Next  to  him,  second  from  left  is  ... 

Mr.  Schoof.   Mr.  Caldwell,  Mr.  Ed  Lenz. 

There's  Mr.  Miller.   That's  myself. 

You're  fourth  from  the  right  of  those  stand 
ing? 

Yes.   That's  my  brother  Carl. 

Behind  you  and  to  the  right. 

There's  Mr.  Wuthmann. 

Mr.  Wuthmann  is  second  from  the  right  of  those 

seated? 

Yes.   Clarence  Bessing,  Ben  Dixon. 

This  is  picture  number  52-B  --  Max  Schmidt. 

Does  that  look  like  him? 

Oh,  you  betcha. 

With  his  cap  off.   He  didn't  mind  having  his 

picture  taken,  I  gather. 

No,  he  didn' t  mind  it. 

Was  he  vain? 

No ,  no . 

Number  53. 

That's  the  anniversary.   I  mean  during  the 

war.   These  are  the  nurses. 

Where  was  this? 

This  is  German  --  some  hall  in  the  city. 
It's  dated  November  29,  1919,  and  says  "In 
honor  of  our  soldiers  and  sailors." 


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204 

It  might  have  been  German  House.   These  are 
all  employees. 

Was  it  a  party  for  those  who  returned? 
Yes,  something  like  that.   We  had  a  lot  of 
these  parties.   These  are  all  nurses,  all 
factory  girls  [in  the  front  row]. 
Did  many  of  the  people  from  Schmidt  Litho 
graph  Company  go  into  the  war? 
Oh  yes,  quite  a  few.   I  think  we  had  forty  or 
fifty,  I  guess. 

Did  you  have  difficulty  operating  during  the 
First  World  War? 

No,  it  was  all  right.   It  wasn't  too  bad. 
Did  you  give  them  all  their  jobs  back  when 
they  returned? 
You  betcha! 

Did  any  of  the  men  in  the  family  go  into  the 
servi  ce? 
No,  no. 

Here's  number  54. 

That's  another  one  of  the  foremen  meetings. 
Henry  Hageman,  Louie  Miller.   That's  an  old- 
time  one. 

Fortieth  Anniversary  of  the  company,  it  says. 
Yes.   George  Hildebrand.   That's  myself  again 


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You're  right  about  in  the  center  of  the  back 

row  there. 

Ed  Pierce,  Joe  Westphal ,  Mr.  Schoof.  Mr.  Max. 

Standing—Mr .  Max  in  the  center,  to  the  left, 

at  the  head  of  the  table.   Who's  on  the  right? 

I  couldn't  say. 

Who's  to  the  left  of  him? 

That's    my    dad.      My   brother   Max.    .    . 

Second  from  the  left,  in  the  front  row  at  the 

table,  your  brother  Max. 

Arnold  Iken,  Andy  Hynes,  Tony  Miller,  George 

Caldwell,  Mr.  Schoof,  Mr.  Olsen. 

These  were  the  executives  of  the  company, 

were  they? 

Mostly  foremen  and  assistant  foremen.   Factory 

building  there. 

Oh,  that's  a  model  of  the  factory  building  on 

the  table. 

Yes.   We  went  to  a  lot  of  trouble  for  the 

banquets . 

Here  is  56.   "Schmidt  Lithograph  Organization, 

July  6,  1928."  Max  Schmidt  right  in  the  center, 

is  that  right? 

Yes.   And  there's  Mrs.  [Marie]  Dufour. 

To  the  right  of  him? 


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Yes. 

What  was  she? 

She  was  a  nurse. 

In  the  factory? 

Yes.   Helen  Barbour,  Alice  Burke.   Oh,  I 

can't  think  of  all  their  names.   My  brother 

Carl.   Vic  Olsen.   Here's  all  the  bindery 

girls.   They  had  their  own  uniform. 

Oh  yes,  in  those  kind  of  smocks  in  the  front 

row  at  the  left  there. 

Yes. 

And  these  were  the  office  girls,  in  dresses 

at  the  right? 

Yes. 

Here  are  some  bindery  girls,  in  smocks  .further 

to  the  right? 

Yes,  those  are  bindery  girls.   Mrs.  Jennings, 

she  was  an  old-timer. 

Is  she  this  woman  with  the  rather  longish 

skirt  and  the  middy  collar,  in  the  first  row, 

to  the  middle  right? 

Yes.   That's  taken  right  in  front  of  the 

factory  door. 

They  must  have  had  to  build  a  grandstand 

there  to  get  everybody  in. 


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207 

They  did.   They  put  that  up,  and  just 
rotated  right  along.   That's  myself  in  here. 
Oh,  you're  the  furthest  one  to  the  left. 
While  they  were  taking  the  picture,  I'd  run 
over  and  get  my  picture  over  here. 
Are  you  at  the  right  too? 
No. 

You  didn't  run  fast  enough  that  day? 
I  didn't  run  fast  enough. 
Did  you  really  do  it  sometimes? 
Oh  yes,  it  can  be  done,  easy. 
This  is  No.  57 . 
That's  an  offset  press. 
This  is  58,  dated  1952. 

This  is  a  calendaring  machine.   We  used  to 
take  the  paper  and  press  it  through  and  make 
it  shine. 

Here's  58-B,  same  date. 
That's  the  same  thing. 

Is  this  the  delivery  end  we're  looking  at? 
I  think  so.   It  looks  like  it.   I  think  so. 
Here's  59. 

The  paper  came  in  cases  like  that,  some  of  it, 
We'd  ship  out  in  cases  like  that. 
And  60. 


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That's  an  offset  press,  two-color. 

These  look  like  later  pictures.   No.  61  is 

dated  1943. 

That's    a    coating   machine.      That's   where   we 

coated   the   paper.      We'd    run    it   through    and   put 

a   coating    on    it,    and   then    run    it   down   here 

and   dry    it   and    roll    it   up   again. 

Did  you    use   much    roll    stock? 

Oh  yes ,    qui  te   a    little. 

What   for? 

That's  the  way  it  came.  And  that's  the  way 

we  delivered  some  of  it.   It  was  easier  to 

handle . 

Some  of  it  came  in  sheets  though? 

Oh  yes  . 

What  presses  did  you  use  to  print  on  the  roll 

stock? 

Oh,  regular  rotary  presses. 

Letterpress  or  offset? 

Offset,  I  guess.   You  see,  we  delivered  a  lot 

of  these  in  rolls,  to  different  companies. 

We   sent  it  back  east  and  they'd  chop  it  up 

themsel ves . 

Oh,  I  see.   Did  you  do  much  work  for  eastern 

customers? 


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209 

Some,  not  too  much. 

Did  the  bulk  of  your  work  go  into  the  western 
food  industry,  could  you  say?  Or  the  major 
part? 

A  little  of  everything.   All  kinds  of  canned 
foods . 

Did  can  labels  make  up  the  most  part  of  your 
work,  the  largest  part? 

Well,  quite  a  little  of  it.   A  lot  of  it  was 
cartons,  you  know,  boxes. 
Did  you  continue  doing  many  wine  labels? 
We  did  a  lot  of  wine  labels,  all  the  time. 
This  is  Number  62. 
That's  the  same  thing. 
As  61 .   Number  63.  .. 
The  same  thing. 

Oh  yes,  another  print  of  61.    Number  64. 
That's  a  calendaring  machine  too. 
I  guess  65  is  the  same  thing,  isn't  it? 
The  same  thing. 

Sixty-six.   There  are  a  lot  of  prints  of  this, 
I  guess.   And  67  is  similar  to  62. 
Yes,  they're  all  the  same. 

All  calendaring.   Sixty-eight  and  sixty-nine 
are  duplicates  too.   Here's  a  new  one,  70. 


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210 

That's  a  two-color. 
Harris? 

Harris  press  ,  yes  . 
Who  are  the  men  there? 

That's  my  brother  Carl  [striped  suit].   I  guess 
that's  the  agent  [on  top]. 

Let  me  see  then.   From  left  to  right  is.  .  . 
Max  H.  Schmidt,  Morton  Schmidt,  Carl;  I  don't 
know  who  he  is,  the  salesman;  and  Mr.  Diedrichs 
Was  that  just  when  that  Harris  two-color  was 
installed  do  you  think? 

I  don't  know  what  year.   A  new  two-color  off 
set,  yes  . 

Number  71  is  called  "Second  Lithographing 
Pressroom.  .  .seed  bag  lithographing."   Is 
that  right?  Are  those  seed  bags? 
That  is  the  seed  bag  division,  yes.  We  made 
a  lot  of  seed  bag  cartons,  paper. 
What  kind  of  presses  were  used  there? 
Those  were  the  same,  the  lithograph  presses. 
Number  72  is  labelled  on  the  back  "New  two- 
color  Hall  aluminum  direct  litho  press,  July 
1920." 

That's  my  writing.   That's  a  new  press. 
What  was  it  used  for? 


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Labels,  cartons,  anything. 
Who  were  those  fellows,  the  press  crew? 
Yes.   There's  "Fat"  Anderson,  the  pressman. 
To  the  left. 

These   are   all    his   helpers.      I've   got   on 
there    "Direct   Litho   Press,"   that's    not   quite 
right.      It's.    .    .well,    call    it   direct;   we 
called   them   offset. 
It   is   offset,    is   it? 
Yes. 

Seventy-three.  .  . 

That's  the  artists'  room.   They  all  had  their 
own  little  pigeonholes. 
Seventy-four. 

That's  Mr.  Max's  press.  That's  the  hand  press. 
Oh,  that's  his  original  hand  press! 
Yes.   He  used  to  pull  impressions  on  it. 
I  wondered  if  there  were  a  picture  of  that  in 
here.   That  was  his  first  one.   How  in  the 
world  did  it  work! 

It  turned  around.   The  stone  was  laid  on  in 
here.   It  would  come  down  with  the  impression, 
and  he  would  roll  it  off  and  pull  his  impression 
off.   It  went  back  and  forth  on  the  table. 
Is  it  still  in  existence? 


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Yes.   It's  right  in  the  front  office  now. 
Here's  75,  ink  making  department. 
Yes.   That's  where  we  ground  our  own  inks. 
Seventy-six.   What  was  that,  do  you  think? 
Mr.  Max's  birthday,  maybe. 
What's  that  over  the  door? 

That's  an  elk's  head  that  was  put  up  there  for 
an  ornament.   This  is  the  lobby  of  the  down 
stairs.   That's  Mr.  Max's  statue  in  there. 
Seventy-seven  must  have  been  another  celebration 
That's  one  of  his  birthdays,  yes. 
Another  of  Max  Schmidt's  birthdays.   Seventy- 
eight  is  what? 

That's  while  they  were  building  the  building, 
I  guess. 

What  bui Iding  was  it? 

Across  the  street  from  the  old  building,  461 
Second  Street.   All  concrete. 
The  next  block  over? 

The  next  block  over  towards  the  waterfront. 
And  picture  number  79  is  the  same  building,  I 
see.   Number  80  says  "Lithographic  Pressroom." 
Yes,  that's  the  old  lithographic  pressroom. 
In  the  old  building? 
Yes. 


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Ei  ghty-one. 

Here's  a  poster,  that's  a  regular  poster.   It 
looks  like  he's  jumping  out  at  him.   There  was 
one  like  that  with  Mr.  Max.   It  was  a  joke. 
Mr.  Max  must  have  been  full  of  jokes. 
Yes,  he  liked  them. 
Were  you  all  full  of  jokes? 
Oh,  not  too  much. 
Eight-two. 

That  was  the  poster  room.   These  24-sheets,  we'd 
have  to  lay  them  on  the  floor  to  see  them. 
They  usually  put  electric  lights  on  them. 
In  81  they  were  displayed  on  the  wall.   Here's 
83. 

That's  the  same  thing. 
Here's  another  view  of  it,  84. 
These  are  all  posters. 

Eighty-five  is  similar.   Eighty-six  is  what? 
Corrugated  rolls.   That's  where  we  stored  our 
rolls  of  prepared  paper,  and  we'd  take  them 
down  and  cut  them  apart,  and  coat  them,  and 
all  that. 

When  do  you  think  these  pictures  were  taken? 
Oh  about,  I  don't  know--  '40,  '38,  '35. 
Eighty-seven. 


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Same  thing.   They  should  have  dates  on  these. 
Eighty -eight. 

Another  [of  the]  poster  room. 
Was  this  a  kind  of  projector  to  the  right? 
I  don't  know. 

Eighty-nine  is,  I  think,  very  interesting, 
in  the  light  of  later  history. 
That's  Louis  Traung  and  Charlie  Traung,  the 
two  brothers.   It  was  the  first  four-color 
[offset]  press.   It  was  theirs. 
Oh,  it  was  their  factory.   Did  you  install  a 
four-color  soon  after? 
About  the  same  time. 
This  is  90,  dated  1930. 

That's  Mr.  Max's  birthday,  I  guess.   It's 
his  office. 
And  91? 

This  is  the  lobby. 
Ninety-two.  .  . 
Factory,  pressroom. 
This  is  93.   What  is  that? 
Oh,  just  the  ink  room,  ink  mill. 
Ninety-four. 

That's  an  old-timer.   This  is  the  old  litho 
graph  plant  down  at  23  Main  Street. 
Oh,  it  is? 


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Yes.   We  had  a  gallery  around  there  and  had 
the  job  printing  presses  in  here,  with  the 
paper  stock  up  in  here. 
This  is  95.   The  same  plant? 
Yes. 

The  Main  Street  plant.   Maybe  all  these  are. 
Ninety-six. 

The  same  thing  on  the  other  side. 
And  97. 

The  same  thing. 

There  are  some  duplicates.   Ninety-eight. 
Same  thing. 

Ninety-nine,   100,  101,  102,  103. 
They're  all  the  same. 

I  have  heard  that  the  Traung  brothers  left 
Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  under  something 
of  a  cloud. 

I  don't  think  they  left  with  any  bad  feeling 
of  any  kind  that  I  know  of.   It  had  been  their 
mind  to  get  into  [their  own]  business. 
I  think  I  heard  somewhere  that  they  had  been 
taking  payoffs  from  an  Ink  company  or  something 
of  the  sort. 

That  they  might  have  done,  yes,  but.  .  . 
They  were  clearly  good  friends  of  the  Schmidt 
Lithograph  Company  later,  according  to  the 


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1931  photograph  [No.  89]. 
Yes,  they  were. 

These  are  some  miscellaneous  pictures.   I  was 
looking  at  them  this  morning  with  Mr.  Died- 
richs.   This  is  number  148. 
That's  Max  Schmidt  [Jr.] . 
Who  was  Mr.  Stieffel,  named  on  the  back? 
He  was  in  charge  of  a  lithograph  shop  back 
east. 

I  see.   It  says  Chicago. 

I  can't  think  of  the  name  now.  Mr.  Stieffel 
was  the  manager  of  some  lithograph  shop  back 
east,  I  guess. 

I  see.   Did  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  own  it? 
No,  no.   Just  another  company. 

This  is  picture  149;  Max  Schmidt  is  in  the  center 
Do  you  recognize  the  other  two  men? 
Oh,  gee.   I  guess  they're  both  lithographers, 
but  I  can't  say  who. 

Here  are  a  couple  of  old-timers;  Number  151. 
Mr.  Schoof. 
What  did  he  do? 

He  was  an  estimator.   He  passed  on  prices  and 
things . 
Was  he  the  one  who  had  been  a  schoolteacher? 


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217 

He  was  a  professor  at  San  Jose  High  at  one 
time . 

How  did  he  happen  to  give  up  teaching  and 
take  to  estimating? 
I  don't  know,  I  couldn't  say. 
This  is  152. 

That's  Arnold  Iken.   He  was  a  metal  engraving 
foreman . 

This  is  the  one  that  I  was  interested  in.   It 
says,  "Here  is  a  picture  of  the  Lustour  Plant 
enlarged  from  Otto  Schoening's  snapshot."  This 
is  picture  153.   What  was  the  Lustour  Plant, 
and  why  was  everyone  interested  in  it? 
I  don't  know  anything  about  it.   Never  heard 
of  it. 

Apparently  people  in  the  company  were  supposed 
to  look  at  it,  according  to  the  memo  attached. 
This  is  number  154.   It's  dated  1953  too.   Do 
you  know  what  that  was? 

Allen  Chickering's  golden  wedding  anniversary, 
I  guess.   It  doesn't  mean  anything. 
Just  a  little  memento  made  up  for  him  by  the 
company? 
Yes. 
This  is  154-B--in  Honolulu. 


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That's  my  brother  Carl. 

To  the  right. 

Carl  Schmidt.   I  don't  know  who  the  other 

f el  low  is. 

Here's    155.      These   are    all    apparently   In 

Honol ul u . 

Yes.   I  imagine  that's  the  varnish  machine. 

And  156. 

That's  Paul  Mcllree.   He  was  the  manager  of 

our  Honolulu  plant. 

To  the  right. 

I  can't  think  of  who  this  other  fellow  is. 

Here's  157. 

That's  the  Honolulu  plant,  I  guess. 

Schmidt  Lithograph  Company  in  Honolulu? 

Yes. 

And  158. 

That's  Carl  Schmidt  and  his  wife  and  Richard 

Schmidt*and  his  wife.   She's  dead. 

Carl  Schmidt  is  left,  Richard  Schmidt  right, 

and  their  wives  are  next  to  them.   That  was 

taken  in  Hawaii,  wasn't  it? 

I  imagine  so.   All  the  leis  and  stuff.   They 

made  quite  a  fuss  about  it. 

Here's  159. 


Richard  Schmidt,  Jr. 


219 


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That's  the  lithograph  plant  too. 

The  Honolulu  Lithograph  was  different  from 

Schmidt  Lithograph's  plant  in  Honolulu? 

No,  it  was  the  same  thing.   In  the  beginning 

it  was  Honolulu  Lithograph,  then  it  turned  to 

Schmidt  Lithograph. 

Was  this  the  same  building  that  we  saw  back 

here? 

No,  that's  a  two-story  building.   I  guess 

that  was  revised  from  this. 

Here's  160.   It  looks  like  a  beach  scene. 

That's  a  beach  scene,  Honolulu,  Waikiki. 

161  is.  .  .? 

Same  thing. 

This  is  162,  it's  dated  1937. 

These  are  artists  down  there.   I  don't  know 

them. 

This  must  be  a  whole  series  of  pictures  of 

that  company,  163,  164.   Do  you  think  this 

was  the  building? 

I  was  never  in  there.   I  never  was  down  in 

Honolulu  while  they  had  the  company.   I  was 

there  before.   When  I  got  through  school  I  went 

to  sea.   I  went  to  Honolulu  three  or  four  times 

You  went  to  sea  before  you  went  into  this  work? 

Yes. 


Tei  ser : 

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220 

What  an  interesting  time  you  must  have  had? 
It  wasn ' t  bad. 
How  old  were  you? 
Twenty-one  or  two. 

That's  a  good  experience  for  a  young  man,  isn't 
it? 

Yes.   That  was  sort  of  a  custom,  after  graduat 
ing  from  Lick  you  had  to  go  to  sea.   It  was 
just  the  thought. 

You  studied  engineering  at  Lick,  did  you? 
We  called  them  machinists.   It  was  a  machine 
shop.   I  graduated  from  the  machine,  the 
mechanical  end  of  it. 

Here's  165.   I  guess  these  are  all  pictures  of 
that  plant. 

These  are  all  Honolulu,  yes. 
No.  166.   Is  this  a  Harris? 
I  guess  it  is,  a  two-color  Harris. 
This  is  170.   Do  you  know  who  that  is  with 
Mr.  Max  Schmidt? 
That's  Paul  Mcllree  again. 
Number  1 71 . 

That's  Honolulu  Lithograph. 
This  is  172. 
Packing  room,  shipping. 


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221 

Number  173;  this  was  the  plant  again. 
What  is  this? 

That's  where  they  hang  up  the  paper  for 
seasoning.   See,  it's  all  in  the  little  racks. 
Inside  those  metal  enclosures. 
Yes,  and  they  blew  air  into  them. 
These  are  the  fans,  in  the  foreground? 
Yes.   It  went  right  straight  through. 
Did  they  have  to  do  that  differently  in  Honolulu 
than  they  did  here? 
No,  we  did  it  the  same  way. 
Number  174  has  on  the  back:   "This  press  is 
paid  for."  Whose  signature  is  that? 
Carl ,  C.  R.  Schmidt. 

The  same  signature  is  on  picture  175.   "This 
press  not  accepted  yet." 

That  was  during  the  consolidation,  I  guess. 
They  had  to  put  prices  on  the  machines. 
Consolidation  of  Honolulu  Lithograph  and 
Schmidt  Lithograph? 
Taking  it  over,  yes. 

Who  had  started  Honolulu  Lithograph  Company? 
How  did  the  company  happen  to  buy  a  plant 
there? 

I  don't  know  if  we  were  there  first  or  riaht  after 
that.   I  couldn't  say.   We  just  wanted  to  be 


222 


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in  the  business. 

Number  176. 

That's  the  same  thing,  more  presses. 

No.  177  and  178. 

These  are  all  offset  presses. 

Are  they  all  Harrises,  do  you  think? 

Yes. 

No.  183. 

Wrapping  department. 

No.  184.   Is  this  the  delivery  end  of  a 

press? 

Yes.   That  would  catch  the  sheets  and  pile 

them  up. 

No.  185.   What  are  those  racks  used  for? 

Oh,  that's  terrible.   We  wouldn't  let  them 

have  that  that  way.   They  had  to  be  taken  out 

and  al 1  squared  up. 

Are  they  printed  sheets? 

They  are  printed  sheets. 

186. 

That's  coming  out  of  the  varnish  machine.   They 

had  to  catch  the  sheets  as  they  came  out.   That's 

what  made  them  so  ragged. 

187. 

Cutting  and  wrapping. 


223 


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188  is  the  pressroom  again? 

That's  right. 

189--this  is  1937. 

That's  the  paper  as  it  came  in.   We  used  to 

ship  it  down  to  Honolulu. 

In  boxes? 

Crates . 

Did  you  ship  it  from  here? 

Yes.   We  coated  it  and  cut  it  and  stacked  it, 

and  sent  it  to  Honolulu.   Of  course,  they 

bought  some  uncoated  paper  too,  for  regular 

labels . 

190. 

That  looks  like  the  transfer  room.   That's 

were  they  made  the  originals,  then  put  them 

on  big  sheets  and  put  them  on  the  press. 

191  . 

That's  a  bronzing  machine. 

192. 

That's  where  the  girls  are  squaring  the  sheets 

You  see  they  take  them  and  square  them;  then 

they  put  them  right  over  on  the  cutter  and 

chop  them  up. 

193. 

That's  the  same. 


224 


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What's  that  machine? 

That's  likely  a  varnish  machine. 

194  is.  .  .? 

That's  a  cutting  machine.   You  see  where  they've 

got  the  labels? 

Yes. 

The  girls  would  wrap  them  up  over  here. 

195  is  quite  a  group. 

They  are  all  Honolulu  people  except  my 

brother  Carl  and  Dick  and  Paul  Mcllree. 

Let's  see  —  Paul  Mcllree  is  on  the  left  end? 

Yes,  then  Carl  Schmidt  and  Richard  Schmidt. 

Those  are  one,  two,  and  three  in  the  foreground, 

on  the  left. 

He  was  manager  of  the  plant. 

The  man  in  the  suit  and  a  flowered  shirt? 

Yes. 

Number  196  is  dated  1955.   These  are  the  same 

three?  Carl  Schmidt.  .  . 

Ri  chard 

And  Paul  Mcllree. 

Where  did  you  get  these  pictures? 

These  are  all  from  Mrs.  Norris. 

Oh,  Stewart  Norris. 

Yes.   I  think  her  father  had  gathered  them  up, 

or  they'd  just  accumulated  over  the  years. 


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Yes,  they  just  accumulated.   They  are  left 

over  from  Dick  Schmidt's  estate,  I  guess. 

There  are  a  couple  of  more  general  questions 

I  had  to  ask  you.   Did  you  have  typesetting 

equipment? 

We  had  a  lot  of  type.   We  had  a  typesetter. 

We  set  type. 

By  hand? 

Hand  operation,  yes. 

You  didn't  have  any  Linotypes? 

No,  we  didn't. 

When  you  had  text  matter  to  set.  .  . 

We'd  have  it  set  outside,  in  another  company. 

Who  generally  set  type  for  you? 

Oh,  I  don't  know;  I've  forgotten  now. 

Did  you  have  good  typesetters?   I  notice  there 

aren't  any  pictures  of  people  setting  type 

in  the  albums,  and  I  wondered  about  it. 

There  was  one  fellow  named  Jury;  he  was  the 

foreman  of  the  type  department.   Richard  Jury. 

How  many  people  were  in  the  type  department? 

He  only  had  a  helper  and  himself.  We  didn't 

do  too  much  of  it;  a  lot  of  it  we  sent  out  and 

had  done  outside. 

Then  I  wanted  to  ask  about  the  company's 

exhibit  in  the  1915  Exposition.   What  was  that 

exhibit? 


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22fi 

Lithograph  work. 

Did  you  have  any  equipment  running  at  the 

fair? 

No,  just  reproductions  of  the  work  we  had  been 

doing. 

I  think  Mr.  Diedrichs  said  that  you  also  allowed 

the  public  to  come  and  look  at  the  presses 

running . 

Oh  yes,  at  times.   We'd  take  school  children 

at  times  too. 

There's  a  big  book  that  was  given  to  the 

Bancroft  Library  by  the  company.   Signatures 

of  people  who,  I  guess,  visited  the  1915 

exhibition.   Do  you  remember  seeing  that? 

The  guest  book. 

Was  that  at  the  exhibit  at  the  Exposition? 

Yes. 

It  was  not  kept  in  the  plant? 

We  kept  it  after  we  were  through  with  the 

exhibition;  we  took  it  down  to  the  plant. 

That  was  a  special  book  just  for  who  visited. 

What  had  been  on  the  block  where  the  second 

building  was  built--the  one  completed  in  1925? 

That  was  Lachman  [and]  Jacobi  wine  company 

that  was  in  here,  across  the  street.   We  tore 


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227 

down  what  was  left  of  Lachman,  Jacobi ;  that 
was  just  a  brick  building.   I  think  Lachman, 
Jacobi  burned  down  during  the  fire. 
How  did  you  happen  to  build  that  big  a  build 
ing  at  that  time? 

We  needed  it.   We  had  the  corrugated  in  there 
[looking  at  a  photograph  of  Plant  No.  2]. 
On  the  first  floor? 

Yes.   The  paper  stock  was  all  in  here. 
On  the  second  floor. 

Then  the  seed  bag  was  on  the  third  floor.   The 
transfer  room  and  the  lithograph  transfer 
department  were  on  the  fourth  floor. 
Where  i  t  was  1 ight? 

Yes.   We  had  good  light  all  around  the  building. 
Does  it  cover  the  whole  block? 
Yes.   We  now  have  a  bridge  across. 
To  the  old  building? 
Yes. 

When  they  merged  the  two  companies  recently, 
how  did  they  fit  all  the  equipment  in  there? 
You  mean  the  Stecher-Traung-Schmidt? 
Yes. 

We  had  more  room  than  we  needed  at  times.  They 
[Stecher-Traung]  disposed  of  a  lot  of  their  old 
equipment  and  put  the  rest  of  it  in  this  building 


228 


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Where  did  they  put  their  big  roll-fed  press? 
That's  in  this  building  on  the  ground  floor. 
This  building  had  a  big  basement  too. 
This  booklet  that  Mr.  Diedrichs  lent  me,  put 
out  when  the  new  building  was  dedicated,  looks 
as  if  it  had  been  got  out  by  the  employees. 
They  supervised  it. 
Where  was  it  printed? 
Printed  out  of  the  shop. 
Who  do  you  think  set  the  type  for  it? 
Oh,  they  maybe  had  it  set  up  outside. 
There  must  have  been  a  lot  of  family  feeling 
among  the  people  who  worked  for  the  company. 
They  were  all  quite  friendly  all  the  time. 
We  never  had  many  rows. 

Did  Max  Schmidt,  Sr.,  create  that  atmosphere 
originally? 

Oh,  maybe  a  little.   I  think  it  grew  up  with 
the  juniors . 
Your  generation? 
My  generation,  yes. 

Did  any  of  you  in  your  generation  ever  expect 
to  do  anything  but  work  at  the  Schmidt  Litho 
graph  Company? 

Most  of  them  worked  there  all  their  lives.   Of 
course,  some  of  them  didn't  go  Into  the 


229 


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company.   My  son  never  was  in  the  business. 

He  wanted  to  be  an  architect  and  a  contractor 

and  a  builder,  and  that  was  it.  We  didn't 

coax  him  either.   There's  too  much  of  fathers 

making  their  sons  go  Into  their  own  business. 

To  me  it  isn't  just  right. 

This  memorandum  of  1953  that  we  were  looking 

at  before-- [attached  to  photograph  number  153] 

I  was  interested  in  some  of  the  namesfiisted 

on  it].   Who  was  0.  Schoning? 

Otto  Schoning?   He  was  the  head  of  the  seed 

bag  company  when  we  bought  it. 

And  he  stayed  with  the  company? 

Yes. 

What  did  he  do? 

He  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents  and  managed 

the  seed  bag  division. 
Who  was  G.  Taylor? 

George  Taylor.   He  was  head  of  estimating  and 

all  that. 

Who  was  Mort? 

Mort   Schmidt   was    Richard   Schmidt's    son.* 

And   what   did   he    do. 

He  was  secretary  of  the  company. 

And  E.  F.  Wuthmann? 


Richard  Schmidt,  Jr.'s  son. 


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230 

He  married  Dick  Schmidt's  sister,  Mrs. 
Wuthmann  now.   He  was  head  of  the  corrugated. 
L.  Schmidt  was  Lorenz  Schmidt? 
That's  my  brother  Carl's  son.   He  was  a  sales 
man  . 

And  this  is  Verne  Bonette,  is  it? 
Verne  Bonette,  he  was  one  of  the  office  clerks. 
J.  E.  Hamilton? 

John  Hamilton.   He  was  in  sales.   And  Harry 
Anderson,  he  was  in  purchasing. 
And  B.  Hamann? 
He  was  in  estimating. 
P.  Grain? 

Percy  Grain  was  then  the  head  of  the  personnel 
department . 
B.  D.  Dixon? 

Ben  Dixon,  he  was  one  of  the  sales  managers. 
Guy  Street. 

He  was  in  advertising,  order  department.   Norman 
Hamilton  was  my  assistant.   The  shipping  depart 
ment  was  Carl  Barthels. 
He  was  head  of  the  shipping  department? 
Yes.   Ernie  Wuthmann,  Jr.,  he  was  in  the  art 
department. 
R.  Duerson? 


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231 

Duerson,  he  was  in  selling;  a  salesman. 
And  Stewart  Norris,  what  was  he  doing  then? 
He  was  under  me. 

I  guess  Dolly  Ohls  was  somebody's  secretary? 
Yes.   She  was  D1ck  Schmidt's  secretary. 
I'm  very  grateful  to  you  for  your  patience  in 
going  over  all  this.   It  certainly  is  kind  of 
you  to  give  the  time  and  the  effort. 


232 


Partial    Index 


233 


Alaska  Packers'  [Association],   18,  46 
Amalgamated  Lithographers'  Union,   25 
Anderson,  Ed  ("Fat"),   118,  119,  135,  211 
Anderson,  Harry,   137,  230 
Anderson,  Henry,   13 
Armstrong,  Jack,   94-95 

Bailey,  Dick,   93,  112 

Barbour,  Helen,   206 

Barnes,  Jack,   112,  125,  131 

Barthels  ,  Carl  ,   230 

Bass-Hueter  Paint  Company,   176 

Bastain,  George,   36,  100,  101 

Beach,  Clarence,   81,  106 

Bergk,  Billy,   69,  72.  73,  101,  102,  111 

Bessing,  Clarence,   203 

Black,  Bill   180 

Blake,  Moffitt  and  Towne,   176 

"Block  Department",   45-46,  48-50,  77,  78 

Bolls,       ,   112 

Bonnette,  Verne,   137,  230 

Bookey,  Bill  ,   128 

Borden,  I[vy]  L.,   86,  176 

Bouquet,  Gus ,   73 

Bowen,  Charlie, 

Bowles,          119 


187 
182 


Caldwell,  George,   13,  14,  63,  64,  94,  96,  184,  103,  205 

Cardozo,  Herb,   130 

Cardozo,  May,   90,  91,  179,  180 

Chickering,  Allen,   217 

Chickering,  William  H.,  86,  89,  175-176 

Crain,  Percy,   137.  230 

Crocker  Bank,   6 

Crocker  Company,  [see  H.  S.  Crocker  Company] 

Crocker  First  National  Bank,   156 

Crowley,  Joe,   106 

Desmond,  Josie,  76 

Dickman,  Joe,   93-94 

Dickman-Jones  Company,  6,  10,  36,  147-148 

Diedrichs,  Deborah,   80 


Boyle 

,  Marti 

n  | 

k 

79 

t 

80 

Bray, 

Arthur 

, 

187 

Bray, 

William  ( 

Bil 

1 

) 

, 

1 

25, 

Brune 

,  Bill, 

1 

34 

Brune 

,  Fred, 

90, 

1 

77, 

1 

79, 

Brune 

,  Louis 

* 

90, 

1 

25 

Burke 

,  Alice 

, 

206 

234 


Diedrichs,  Herman,   20-139,  161-162,  210 

Diedrichs,  Mrs.  Herman,   28-29,  30,  51-56,  134,  135,  162 

Dixon,  Ben  D.  ,   137,  203,  230 

Donahue  mansion,   35 

Doyle,  Bill  ,   134,  135 

Duerson,  R.,   138,  230-231 

Dufour,  Marie,   205-206 

Durham,  ,   99 

Earthquake  of  1906,   27-33,  142-144,  166 
Ellis,  Dick,   16,  77 
Emporium  [department  store]  ,  22 
Evans,  Arthur,   114 

Farrell,  Charlie,   16,  77,  79,  104-105 
Freeze,  Eddie,   75 

Galloway  Lithographing  Company,   37-38,  116,  149,  150 
Galvin,  Jack,   43,  45,  91 
Gamble,  Frank   11,  59,  166-167 
George,  Andy,   202 

Gilbert,  ,  80 

Gilbert,  Gertie,   190 
Gillespie,  Frank,   72 

H.  S.  Crocker  Company,   4-5,  6,  147-148 

Hageman,  Henry,   83,  84,  108,  199,  204 

Haker,  Edna,   180 

Hami Iton,  John  E. ,  230 

Hamilton,  Norman,   138,  230 

Hamman,  B.  ,   137 ,  230 

Hancock,  Bob,   82,  106 

Hand  transferring,   63-68  and  paaeim 

Hart,  Dan,   72,  74 

Hart,  George,   112 

Hartman,  Arty,   111,  112 

Hartmann,  Louis,   98,  190,  191 

Heath,  Oscar,   11,  12,  98,  167,  190 

Heinrich,  Dick,   13,  62-63,  93,  94,  111 

Heppert,  Harry,   87 

Hueter,  E.  L. ,   86,  89 

Hildebrand,  George,   48,  103,  104,  194,  204 

Honolulu  Lithograph  Company,   158-159,  217-224 

Honolulu  plant,  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  see  Honolulu 

Lithograph  Company 
Honolulu  Times-Star  159 
Hughes,  Clarence,   118 
Hunt,  Haywood,   2 
Hynes,  Andy,   36,  74,  86,  99,  100,  181,  201,  202,  205 


235 

Iken,  Arnold,   92-93,  113,  136,  183,  202,  205,  217 
International  Club  of  Printing  House  Craftsmen,   2 

Jackson,  Scotty,   99 

Jaggard,  Belmont  P.  ("Doc"),   45,  91,  181,  202 

James,  [W.  F.],   98 

Jennings,  Mrs.  [E.  W.] ,   206 

Jones,  George,   10,  36,  58,  166 

Jury,  Richard,   225 

Kaiser,  Charlie,   75,  76 
Klein,  Frank,   14,  69 

Labels  ,   passim 

Lachman  and  Jacobi  ,   21,  226-227 

Lampe,  Bill  ,   71 ,  107 

Lenz,  Ed,   203 

Lick  School ,   8,  220 

Ligget  and  Meyers,   153,  155 

Lindecker,  Charlie,   113,  127 

Lithography,  direct,   see  Aluminum  presses  and  passim 

Lithography,  offset,   34-35  and  passim 

Lithography,  stone,   25,  31-32,  64-68,  150-152,  and  passim 

Louderdale,  ,  111 

Lustour  Company,  St.  Louis,   136,  217 
Lynch,  Josie,   80 

McCormick,  Johnny,   75 
McGinity,  Edward  D.,   23 
Mcllree,  Paul,   159,  218,  220,  224 
McMahon,  John  J.,   45,  83,  84 

Maloney,  Mike,   117,  133 
Martin,  Charlie,   63,  94 
Metzger,  Adrian,   125 
Millard,  "Fat"   119 
Miller,  _       93,  94 
Miller  Lithograph  Company,   177 
Miller,  Louis,   177,  179,  203,  204 
Miller,  Tony,   205 
Moffitt,  James  K. ,   86,  176 
Monel li  ,  Paul  ,   43 
Moreno,  Joe,   77 
Morrison,  Albert,   70 
Morrow,  Bill  ,   12,  60 
Moyles,  Andy,   12 
Mullens,  Bill,  99 
Munson,  John,   109,  112,  131 
Muriset,  Fred,   112 

Mutual  Label  and  Lithograph  Company,   5,  6,  35-36,  56-86,  147- 
148,  165-174 


236 

Nelson,  Andy,   78,  103,  109 

Morris,  Stewart,   132,  135,  138,  231 

Norris,  Mrs.  Stewart  (Barbara  Schmidt),  4,  5,  51,  165,  224 

Ny,  Jules,   81 

Ny,  Paul ,   17,  81 ,  107 

Oakland  plant,  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,   30-34,  142 
Ohls,  Dolly,   139,  231 

Olsen,  Dr.  ,   122 

Olsen,  Vic,   36-37,  41  ,  99,  110,  111,  114,  118,  122,  205,  206 

Pack,  Urvan,   117 

Panama  Pacific  International  Exposition,   50-51,  225-226 

Pierce,  Ed,   14,  15,  17,  22,  81,  97,  115,  119,  172,  205 

Pierce,  Ed,  Jr. ,  119 

Plant  No.  2,  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,   38-39,  108,  109, 

116,  212,  227 
Pohlmann,  [Theodore?],  4 

Possnecke,  ,   111 

Powers,  Dave~i   72 

Presses,  aluminum,   14,  15,  16,  25-26,  31,  34,  41,  69, 

71-72,  73,  151,  152,  154,  170,  187,  192-193,  210 
Presses,  Campbell,   71,  72 
Presses,  Harris,   34,  35,  40,  42,  43,  50-51,  100,  113,  114, 

116,  117,  118,  132,  133,  192,  210,  220,  222 
Presses,  Hoe,   73,  74 
Presses,  letterpress,   18,  50,  68,  152-154  and  passim.   See 

also  "Block  Department" 
Presses,  Miehle,   16,  35,  46,  50,  68-69,  77,  78,  102,  103, 

104,  153,  170,  189,  193-194,  195 
Pringle,  Adam,   42,  76 

Rahsskopff,  Carl,   7,  10,  11,  17,  58,  59,  89,  98,  99,  101, 

105,  106,  126,  137,  141,  161,  165,  166,  167,  174,  177, 
180,  181,  182,  190,  191,  193,  195,  197 

Ramsey,  Dave,   72 

Reed,  Bill,   91 ,  127,  180 

Reyes,  Joe,   104,  112 

Rice,  191 

Rochester  Lithograph  Company,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,   165 
Rolet,  Charlie,   75,  76 
Row,     _,   92 

St.  Brendan's  School,   21 
St.  Mary's  Hospital  ,   21 ,  143 
Sano,   153 

Schluter,  Annie,   74,  76 
Schmid,  Bob,   134,  135 

Schmidt,  Bernhard  H.  (Ben),   7,  8,  28,  56,  87,  105,  112,  114, 
124,  125-126,  133,  138,  141-231 


237 

Schmidt,  Carl,   7,  90,  116,  128,  132,  133,  144,  145,  146, 

177,  179,  203,  206,  210,  218,  221,  224,  230 
Schmidt,  Mrs.  Carl  ,   218 
Schmidt,  Emile,   145 
Schmidt,  Frank,   101,  102,  111 
Schmidt,  Kurt,   3,  6-7,  160-161 
Schmidt,  Lorenz,   137,  177,  230 

Schmidt,  Mathilda,   see  Wuthmann,  Mrs.  Ernest  F.  Sr. 
Schmidt,  Max,   3,  4,  6,  7-8,  9,  10,  11,  28,  30,  38,  58,  86, 

87,  88,  89,  90,  115,  126,  127,  128,  129,  130,  133,  136, 

141,  143,  145,  146-147,  148,  160,  166,  175,  176,  177,  179, 

180,  181,  182,  201,  202,  203,  205,  211,  212,  213,  214, 

220,  228 

Schmidt,  Mrs.  Max,   3,  7 

Schmidt,  Max  A.,   82,  105-106,  144,  145,  182,  196,  205 
Schmidt,  Max  Jr.  (Max  H.),   1-19,  56,  59,  62,  87,  98,  113, 

114,  116,  138,  144,  145,  160,  167,  182,  190,  210,  216 
Schmidt,  Morton,   116,  132-133,  139,  210,  229 
Schmidt,  Richard,   10,  11-12,  13,  15,  39,  58,  59,  63,  70,  73, 

82,  87-88,  90,  99,  101,  102,  126,  127,  129,  130,  137, 

141,  143,  166,  167,  170,  176,  177,  179,  181-182,  191, 

193,  202,  205 
Schmidt,  Richard  Jr.  (Dick),   7,  8-9,  86-87,  90,  127-128, 

145-146,  160,  176-177,  179,  180,  202,  218,  224,  225,  229, 

230,  231 
Schmidt,  May  Cardozo  (Mrs.  Richard  Jr.),   218  see  also 

Cardozo,  May 
Schneider,  Oscar,   5,  6 
Schoning,  Herbert,   37-38,  39,  116 
Schoning,  Otto,   37-38,  39,  116,  136,  229 
Schoof,  Gerhard,   89,  90,  133,  136,  177,  178-179,  203,  205, 

216 

Schubkagel ,      .   134 
Shaw,  John,   35 
Siebert,  Louis,   107-108 
Simonsen,  George,   70,  100,  111 
Sisters  of  Mercy,   21 
Sloss ,  [Louis  ,  Jr.  ?]  ,   10 
Social  Society,   121-123,  129,  131-132 
Soderwal 1  ,  Axel ,   94 
Soderwal 1  ,  Gus  ,   5,  10,  94 

Stecher  Company,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,   164,  165 
Stecher-Traung  Corporation,   227-228 
Stecher-Traung-Schmidt  Corporation,  227-228 

Stieffel  ,  ,   216 

Street,  Guy,  T37-138,  230 
Strikes,   see  Unions 

Tanforan,  Gussie,   11,  179 
Taylor,  George,   137,  229 
Tofanelli  ,  Charlie,  97 


238 

"Tower  Time"   40 

Traung,  Charles,   14-15,  27,  36,  47-48,  70,  73,  104,  177- 

178,  182,  194,  214,  215-216 
Traung  Label  and  Lithograph  Company,   42-43 
Traung,  Louis,   14-15,  23,  26,  27,  30,  33,  36,  42,  43,  47, 

70,  75,  77,  100-101,  102,  103,  131,  177-178,  182,  188, 

193,  194,  214,  215-216 
Troll,  Charlie,   75 

Unions,  printing  trades,   10,  23-25,  47-48,  123 
Vanderveen,  Chris,   72,  99 

Walters,  Eddie,   76 

Ward,  Bill,   69 

Warren,  Michael,  Jr.  (Mike),   62,  94,  95 

Wehr,  Henry,   10,  166,  182 

Wempe  Brothers,  Oakland,   30,  142 

Westphal,  Joe,   106,  110-111,  125,  205 

Willis,   ,   1 17 

Winberg,  George,   49,  102,  112 

Wise,  ,   69 

Wuthmann,  Ernest  F.  Sr.  ,  87,  137,  138,  146,  203,  229-230 
Wuthmann,  Mrs.  Ernest  F.  Sr.  ,   87,  145,  146,  230 
Wuthmann,  Ernest  F.  Jr.,   138,  230 

Zellerbach,  Henry,   11,  12,  15 

Zellerbach,  Jake,   167 

Zellerbach  Paper  Company,   14-15,  42 


Max  Schmidt's  1916  New  Years  Card 
This  is  a  xerox  copy  of  an  eleborate  three- 
dimensional  multi-colored  stand-out  card. 


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38 


THE  NATIONAL  LITHOGRAPHER 


LITHOGRAPHIC  LEADERS. 

Biographical  Sketches  of  Some  of  the  Men  Who  Have 
Made  Lithographic  History. 

Thi»  is  th<  second  of  a  »<rief  which  will  appear  in  thi»  publication. 
MAX  SCHMIDT. 

The  fact  that  Max  Schmidt  was  born  in  Schoenbauni, 
near  Danzig,  in  Germany,  on  February  17,  1850,  is  im 
portant  only  as  a  starting  point.  At  the  age  of  22,  with 
out  a  word  of  English,  he  landed  in  San  Francisco.  That 
is  of  the  greatest  importance.  The  day  he  first  put  foot  on 
California  soil  was  the  most  significant  in  his  life,  for  he 
insists  it  was  California  that  gave  him  his  opportunity. 

He  was  twenty-two,  he  had  but  a  self-taught  knowl 
edge  of  English,  and  he  did  not  even  know  the  meaning 
of  the  word  lithography  when  he  obtained  a  job  as  a  trans 
fer  man  for  the  Daily  Stock  Report,  a  San  Prancisco  pub 
lication  that  was  what  its  name  indicated.  There  was  just 


' 


MAX    SCHMIDT 


one  circumstance  that  a  seer  might  have  said  inclined  him 
to  the  career  he  was  about  to  embark  upon  and  follow  for 
the  remainder  of  a  long  life.  The  boy  could  letter  very 
neatly.  All  the*  seven  years  he  had  sailed  the  seas  he 
had  kept  a  log,  and  its  lettering— the  log  is  still  in  ex 
istence — is  very  neat  and  precise. 

One  week  of  gratuitous  service,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
second  Max  Schmidt  received  his  first  pay — $3.  The  $3 
a  week  did  not  interest  him  greatly.  He  had  driven  a 
bakery  wagon  for  twice  that  amount.  At  the  end  of  two 
months  of  bakery  wagon  driving  he  was  still  a  bakery 
wagon  driver.  But  at  the  end  of  two  months  of  work  as 
the  Daily  Stock  Report's  deliveryman  he  was  beginning 
to  learn  the  rudiments  of  engraving. . 

During  his  first  year  in  San  Francisco  he  worked  at 
several  jobs.  After  that  first  berth  with  the  bakery  they 
all  had  to  do  with  printing,  the  making  of  labels  and  the 
like.  A  combination  of  circumstances  was  shaping  his 
destiny.  Definitely  the  sea  was  behind  him  now.  Gone 
the  old  wanderlust.  He  liked  San  Francisco.  He  liked 
lithography.  He  liked  the  idea  that  he  was  learning  a 


trade.  He  liked  to  use  his  hands.  And  he  liked  to  use 
his  wits,  too. 

Came  the  second  big  date  in  Max  Schmidt's  existence, 
October  2,  1872.  On  that  day  he  was  let  out  of  a  job  by 
Korbel  Bros.,  manufacturers  of  cigar  boxes,  labels  and 
brands.  He  had  saved  just  $18  during  nearly  a  year  of 
hard  work.  He  had  felt  his  way  in  English.  He  had  mas 
tered  his  tools  and  had  built  up  a  lot  of  fatih  in  himself. 

Korbel  Bros,  didn't  "fire"  Max  Schmidt.  They  let 
him  go,  reluctantly,  because  they  had  no  more  work  for 
him  to  do.  Next  to  landing  in  San  Francisco,  rather  pur 
poselessly,  being  let  out  of  that  job  was  the  best  thing  that 
ever  happened  to  him. 

Ten  dollars  of  his  savings  went  to  pay  the  rent  of  a 
ten  by  twelve  room  at  535  Clay  Street.  He  hung  out  a 
sign  bearing  the  legend  M.  Schmidt  &  Co.  and  struck 
out  in  business  for  himself.  His  was  a  one-man  litho 
graphing  plant.  That  was  fifty-four  years  ago  and  the 
seed  of  the  Schmidt  Lithograph  Company,  a  great  busi 
ness. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  seen  Max  Schmidt  as  a 
wideawake  young  man  looking  for  the  main  chance.  Cali 
fornia  teemed  with  Max  Schmidts — lively  young  men 
eager  to  get  ahead.  But  with  his  embarkation  in  business 
of  his  own  he  becomes  an  empire  builder,  cleaving  to  a 
rock  bottom — a  lithographer's  stone. 

The  Sacramento  River,  flowing  from  the  Sierras  to 
San  Francisco  Bay,  overflowed  with  salmon.  A  fishing 
industry  was  being  built  along  its  banks.  The  gold  rush 
was  of  the  epic  past,  but  mining  was  being  carried  on  yet 
by  stock  companies.  The  gold  fever  was  still  in  the  blood 
and  it  was  not  a  healthy  condition.  People  were  buying 
mining  stocks  blindly,  mining  companies  were  being  organ 
ized  on  wild  hope.  Whether  there  was  any  gold  in  the 
mines — whether,  indeed,  there  were  any  mines — there  was 
demand  for  stock  certificates  neatly  lithographed.  Many 
a  promoter  brought  his  schemes  to  the  little  establishment 
of  M.  Schmidt  &  Co.,  to  be  spread  on  heavy  paper.  • 

Along  with  the  mines  were  the  wines.  Here  was  a 
genuine  business,  just  getting  under  way  when  Max 
Schmidt  launched  out  for  himself.  He  grew  and  ex 
panded  as  the  Germans  and  the  Italians  up  in  the  hills 
north  of  San  Francisco  harvested  their  grapes  and  pressed 
out  the  juice  and  bottled  it.  They  needed  labels  for  a 
product  that  was  to  take  its  place  among  the  famous  vin 
tages  of  the  world,  to  flourish  until  a  legalistic  drouth  sent 
the  vintner  into  retirement.  Schmidt  became  identified 
with  and  necessary  to  a  tremendous  industry.  Up  in  the 
St.  Helena  Mountains  were  miles  of  tunnels  and  barrels 
filled  with  the  juice  of  the  grape,  aging  against  the  day  of 
export.  Famous  names  were  to  go  forth  to  far  tables  of 
connoisseurs — Asti.  Italian-American,  Landsberger  & 
Co.,  Gundlach-Bundschu — bottled  life  and  effervescence, 
bearing  labels  printed  by  M.  Schmidt  &  Co. 


Oue  IKV  diH-s  inn  make  a  hive  single- tooled,  and  Max 
Schmidt  did  not  luiild  tip  single-handed  the  Schmidt  Litho 
graph  ("unijuiny  from  a  one-man  concern  to  wliat  it  is  to- 
<lay.  Always  IK-  has  had  the  co-operation  of  loyal  work 
ers.  RahsskoptT  saved  the  house  of  Schmidt  with  his 
varnishing  machine.  Jiiit  more  than  to  RahsskopfF,  more 
than  to  any  other  one  man  in.  the  organization,  Max 
Schmidt  owes  success  to  his  brother  Richard,  who  has  lieen 
a  pillar  in  the  house  for  fifty-one  years.  Richard  Schmjdt 
is  a  quiet  sort,  hut  a  tremendously  capable  man,  and 
for  more  than  half  a  century  every  detail  of  the  business 
has  l>een  at  his  fingers'  end. 

Without  money — he  gave  up  the  $60  wages  due  him 
when  he  quit  his  ship  on  December  9,  1871 — Max  Schmidt 
cast  his  lot  in  the  land  of  opportunity,  made  the  most  of 
things  and  grew  with  the  West.  He  profited  by  change 
of  location,  by  the  creative  genius  of  others,  and  developed 
considerable  on  his  own  hook.  That  he  grew  and  pros 
pered  was  but  meet  and  natural,  for  by  his  hard  work, 
his  grit  and  his  faith  he  became  an  important  cog  in 
the  great  wheel  of  progress. 


Ruth  Teller 

Grew  up  in  Portland,  Oregon;  came  to  the  Bay  Area 

in  1932  and  has  lived  here  ever  since. 

Stanford,  B.  A.,  M.  A.  in  English,  further  graduate 

work  in  Western  history. 

Newspaper  and  magazine  writer  in  San  Francisco  since 

1943,  writing  on  local  history  and  economic  and 

business  life  of  the  Bay  Area. 

Book  reviewer  for  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle 

since  1943. 

As  correspondent  for  national  and  western  graphic 

arts  magazines  for  more  than  a  decade,  came  to 

know  the  printing  community. 


16     9457 


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